Environmentalists Say Coal Ash Problems in Montana Show Need for Federal Regulation

Date: September 10, 2012

Source: News Room

Environmental groups are pointing to recent events involving coal ash impoundment ponds in Montana and Pennsylvania as evidence that federal regulation is needed and that state oversight alone is insufficient to guard against environmental harm. In Montana, groups including the Sierra Club have filed a petition asking the state's environmental review board to overrule a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) consent order against PPL Montana's coal ash impoundment facility in Colstrip. The groups argue that the state's generous compliance schedules allow facility owners to postpone cleaning up and improving storage systems indefinitely without financial penalties. In Pennsylvania, the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) sued to shut down a 1,700-acre coal ash impoundment operated by FirstEnergy, that has been leaking toxics into nearby groundwater, only after groups including the Environmental Integrity Project and others filed a notice of intent to sue.

Environmentalists' legal actions come as many lawmakers, along with state and industry officials, are pressing legislation that would block final action on EPA's 2010 proposal to regulate coal combustion residuals as either hazardous subject to strict RCRA subtitle C rules, or less stringent solid waste rules under RCRA subtitle D. EPA has said it will not issue a final rule until the end of 2012. EPA is also revising its Clean Water Act (CWA) effluent limitation guidelines for power plants to include strict new technology standards for coal ash storage facilities.

More recently, a bipartisan group of senators led by Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) unveiled a bill, S. 3512 that includes stricter requirements than earlier efforts to preempt EPA. The new bill includes measures meant to gain support such as ash pond lining and enclosure requirements and groundwater monitoring mandates not in earlier measures and strengthens inspection and other requirements for states' ash programs.

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