The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is part of a coalition warning it could sue the Environmental Protection Agency this spring. The Tennessee-based watchdog group wants EPA to finish rules over coal ash – a byproduct of power plants burning coal.
The EPA said it would regulate coal ash after the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant spilled millions of tons into a river near Knoxville in 2008. Agency rules would set a standard for handling the ash, which contains toxic elements and is often stored in ponds near rivers, and can be used to make cement.
Josh Galperin is a lawyer for the Southern Alliance, and says EPA should’ve had rules in place years before the Kingston spill.
“And then when the Kingston disaster happened, EPA promised to take action. And while they proposed a rule, they have not yet finalized it. They’ve been kicking the can down the road. And that’s the kind of thing that happens in politics, and it especially happens in election years, but this can’s been kicked too far.”
Galperin blames lobbying by the coal industry for the delay. He says electric providers don’t want to take on higher costs to dispose of ash properly. But Galperin points to the TVA’s billion-dollar cleanup cost, to dredge the river and haul off so much spilled ash at Kingston. He says there, doing less wasn’t a cheaper option.
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Crews work to dredge the river a year after the Kingston spill in this 2009 file photo.
In a statement the EPA says it won’t finalize rules over coal ash until it’s evaluated all the responses to its proposal; the agency says it’s received some 450 thousand comments.
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