New EPA Standards Label Toxic Coal Ash Non-Hazardous

[wvit1001]

Doesn't this fly right in the face of all you conservonuts ideas about how the EPA is against business?





The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new national standards designating coal ash – a nearly ubiquitous byproduct of coal-fired power plants that contains arsenic and lead – as non-hazardous waste.

NPR's Christopher Joyce reports that coal-fired power plants produce more than 130 million tons of the coal ash each year and they have long stored millions of tons of it in giant ponds.

But many of those ponds have failed in recent years, allowing contaminated water to get into rivers and streams, and ultimately into drinking water.

Environmental groups sued the EPA to designate coal as a hazardous waste, which would require strict rules for its care, Christopher says.

But instead, the EPA has decided to treat it more like ordinary household garbage.

"The Environmental Protection Agency said in a call with reporters Friday that the record did not support a hazardous classification. The agency said the steps they were taking would protect communities from the risks associated with coal ash waste sites and hold the companies operating them accountable.


"'It does what we hoped to accomplish ... in a very aggressive but reasonable and pragmatic way,' said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy."

Nonetheless, the new EPA rules will set standards for how coal ash ponds are built.

Christopher reports that the EPA will require companies to disclose their coal ash storage plans to the public. The agency says the public can then take legal action if companies don't meet the EPA standards.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/19/371952760/new-epa-standards-label-toxic-coal-ash-non-hazardous

[D2D]

Say hello to higher energy costs and greater unemployment brought to the iron fist of the environazis known as the EPA!

[wvit1001]

so you don't think someone needs to have oversight on how coal ash is stored by these companies?  You do know that there have been huge problems with such storage don't you D2

[D2D]

Sure they have had some problems with aging storage but all things that age become more prone to failure!

Why don't you know that!

This is just another front in the war against coal!

The end result will be ever higher cost energy, ever higher unemployment and ever higher dependence which is Obama's goal!

[wvit1001]

aging storage?  In NC they just had their biggest leak of coal ash ever from a storage pond that was still being used.  And they had warning that it could happen by a consultant they had hired years ago but Duke Power chose to ignore the warning.

[seahooker]

this was politically expedient way to appease the coal miner's union people. they are trying not to lose that block of voters!

[wvit1001]

or, they base their rulings on science and not on politics.  which is much more likely hooker.

[seahooker]

wit, everything politicians do is based on politics, they don't really give a rat's ass about the public.

[wvit1001]

So you agree that this decision goes against everything you've been lead to believe about the EPA and you're struggling to find a way to maintain your beliefs.