Environmentalists File Lawsuit Seeking Disclosure of EPA Coal Ash Data

Date: December 14, 2009

Source: News Room

Environmentalists, including Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in federal district court to force EPA to release key data on coal ash "wet" disposal ponds, including information on storage capacity, inspection results and records of violations at more than 70 sites. The Dec. 2 suit (Sierra Club, et al. v. EPA), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says EPA failed to respond to the group's FOIA request within the statutory time frame. In a June 18 FOIA request, the environmentalists sought access to records relating to identification and assessment of the most hazardous coal waste impoundments in the country. The groups are concerned that they will not have enough time to independently review the data by the time that EPA proposes new rules for ash disposal and whether to regulate it as non-hazardous, hazardous, or some combination thereof. EPA is developing the rules in response to a massive spill last December at a Tennessee Valley Authority waste impoundment near Kingston, TN. The environmental groups note that EPA released data earlier this year to show there are almost twice as many coal ash dumps as previously identified.

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