EPA Vows to Act on Coal Waste

Date: January 23, 2009

Source: News Room

Under intensifying pressure from all quarters, the head of EPA's Office of Solid Waste said they will "quickly" decide whether to regulate coal combustion waste (CCW) under federal waste law following three spills at Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plants.

Environmentalists and industry have battled over CCW's designation as a hazardous or solid waste since the inception of waste laws in the late 1970s, but the EPA has only investigated designating it as a potential hazardous waste only to later back away, most notably in 2000 and again last year.

Now Matthew Hale, director of EPA's Office of Solid Waste, told the Washington Post on Jan. 16 that EPA "will be bringing this forward very quickly to reach a decision on the path forward, and that's the time when we'll be able to have a timetable." EPA is currently reviewing comments on a notice of data availability (NODA) that asks whether the agency should regulate CCW as a non-hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA).

Referring to the massive Dec. 22 coal ash spill at TVA's Harriman, TN site, Hale said "Clearly, the dam failure at TVA puts a sense of urgency on the issue of addressing the stability of the dams," indicating an agency focus on the types of coal waste disposal. Activists and some lawmakers are calling for a federal ban on "wet" disposal like that which prompted the TVA spill.

Several lawmakers have introduced, or announced plans to introduce, competing legislation to regulate CCW. For example, Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said she would introduce legislation compelling EPA to regulate CCW in the event the Obama EPA fails to act soon. "If we are not satisfied with action we may move legislatively," Boxer told EPA Administrator-designate Lisa Jackson at a Jan. 14 confirmation hearing. "I don't want to get to that point because I think you have the authority to regulate this. It needs to be done."

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