KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - New federal regulations for coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal at power plants, took effect Monday for the storage and disposal of the substance.
The regulations were prompted in part by a 2008 environmental disaster caused by the release of 5.4 million cubic yards of sludge from a storage pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in 2008. The coal ash slurry polluted the Emory River, damaged homes and required a $1 billion clean up.
The regulations require utilities to routinely inspect coal ash ponds and landfills and post the results online, The News Sentinel reports (https://bit.ly/1W0QrLu). They also must control dust from coal ash sites, and in a year determine whether existing storage ponds meet mandatory safety standards.
The new rules are the first time the federal government has regulated coal-ash storage and disposal and arrive after years of lobbying and a lawsuit by environmental groups.
“We’ve already seen the beginning of utilities starting to comply with the regulations,” said Lisa Evans, an attorney for the environmental watchdog group Earthjustice.
Evans said the new standards fall short of what environmentalists had sought, but they are an improvement.
Before the federal rule, the regulations varied from state to state.
“The rule is a weak rule,” Evans said, “but it is a national rule that all utilities must comply with. This is a small step forward, and we’re better off than we were last year. But there’s a lot of work to be done.”
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Information from: Knoxville News Sentinel, https://www.knoxnews.com
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