U.S. EPA eases Obama-era standards on toxic coal ashFull article here.]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it has eased Obama-era standards on the disposal of toxic coal ash, a move expected to be the agency’s first revision of the standards and one that was slammed by environmentalists.
The 2015 rule established minimum national standards for the disposal of coal ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants that contains materials such as arsenic and lead.
The EPA said the revision would give flexibility to utility companies and states, which had fought against the standards calling them unduly burdensome, and save $28 million to $31 million per year in regulatory costs...
Under the new rule, state and EPA officials will be able to suspend groundwater monitoring requirements at coal ash sites if it is determined there is no potential for pollutants to move into certain aquifers. The rule also extends the life of some coal ash ponds from early 2019 to late 2020.
Coal ash is stored at hundreds of power plants throughout the country. Spills in Tennessee and North Carolina leached sludge containing toxic materials into rivers in those states over the last decade...
The EPA said on Wednesday it plans to propose other changes to the 2015 coal ash rule later this year.
A "People's Hearing" on Monday June 11th will be held to get public input and inform the public on the coal ash pits seeping toxic chemicals into the Middle Fork River. More information is available at their facebook event page and they also had a blurb in the News-Gazette recently:
People's Hearing to Protect the Middle ForkMore event details and contact information at the full blurb here. There was also some background information on the issue and players from the News-Gazette yesterday:
It's Our River! Let's Protect It.
Join neighbors and friends at the June 11 People’s Hearing in Danville. Now is the time to call on the IEPA and Governor to protect the state’s National Scenic River by ensuring the removal and relocation of coal ash to a properly-constructed, monitored landfill away from the river. Coal ash includes toxic heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, lead, manganese, and nickel that are known to cause birth defects, cancer and neurological damage in humans and harm and kill wildlife, especially fish.
Senator Scott Bennett, Vermilion County Board Chair Michael Marron, and Danville’s Mayor Scott Eisenhauer will preside over the meeting. The hearing will include a ten-minute overview of the problem and solution under consideration before hearing from experts.
Dynegy faces federal lawsuit over coal-ash pits on Middle ForkA lot more information, details and background at the full article here.
The Prairie Rivers Network, which hopes to force Dynegy to clean up coal-ash dumps along the Middle Fork River, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the power company is allowing harmful pollution to leach into the river upstream from Kickapoo State Recreation Area.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Urbana, asks the court to declare that Dynegy is violating the nation's Clean Water Act at its former coal-fired Vermilion Power Station along the banks of the Middle Fork and order the company to cease all unpermitted discharges of pollutants into the state's only National Scenic River, as well as pay civil penalties.
In January, Prairie Rivers Network and Earthjustice officials announced the filing of a 60-day notice of intent to sue Dynegy, which closed the Vermilion Power Station in 2011 — the same year that sampling from underground monitoring wells on the property detected levels of boron, manganese and sulfate in excess of groundwater quality standards.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared Dynegy to be in violation as a result of that sampling.
Though the power station has been shuttered for several years, three pits remain there filled with coal ash left over from decades of the coal-burning process. The ash contains contaminants, like boron, manganese and more, that can be harmful to the environment.
Following up on these previous Cheat Sheet posts: Local River Endangered (4/10/2018), More Coal Ash News (3/2/2018) and Coal Ash Cleanup in the News (2/9/2018).
[This post originally published on 6/1/2018 at 4:43pm]
I am pleased to say that the judge decided to reduce the instalments from £250 to £165 per month; it's still a lot, and wasn't quite what I'd asked for but this reduction helps us a great deal.
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