Am COAL ASH Assoc (ACAA)

This page refers to coal ash in general, includes slurry

includes petcoke, leftover from tar sand processing
COAL ASH 2 3/18 age of trump

some confusion perhaps with ACCCE

portal: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_waste"> http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coal_waste</a>

<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15032018/epa-regulations-coal-power-plant-waste-ash-ponds-toxins-health-jeremy-orr-water-testing">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15032018/epa-regulations-coal-power-plant-waste-ash-ponds-toxins-health-jeremy-orr-water-testing</a><div></div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/9/how_an_alabama_town_is_fighting_against">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/9/how_an_alabama_town_is_fighting_against</a></div><div>
</div><div><span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Uniontown, Alabama, have lived with the Arrowhead landfill, which is twice the size of New York’s Central Park, have protested shipments of toxic coal ash—the residual byproduct of burning coal—from a massive spill in Kingston, Tennessee, believed to be the largest coal ash disaster in U.S. history. For two years, nearly 4 million tons of coal ash was also shipped by rail from a mostly white Tennessee county to Uniontown. Coal ash contains toxins, including arsenic, mercury and boron, that can affect the nervous and reproductive systems and cause other health problems. According to the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">EPA<span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">, people living within a mile of unlined coal ash storage ponds have a one-in-50 risk of developing cancer. In 2013, some Uniontown residents filed a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. This week, the <span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">EPA<span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> dismissed the claim, saying there was “insufficient evidence.” We speak with Ben Eaton, vice president of Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice and a resident of Uniontown, Alabama; and with Mustafa Santiago Ali, former head of the EPA’s environmental justice program.</div><div>
</div><div></div> =<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/americas-toxic-prisons-environmental-injustices-mass-incarceration" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://www.alternet.org/environment/americas-toxic-prisons-environmental-injustices-mass-incarceration</a><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Morgenstern is convinced his Hodgkin's lymphoma was caused by exposure to toxic coal ash from the massive dump right across the road from SCI Fayette, a maximum-security prison in LaBelle, Pennsylvania, where he is currently serving a 5- to 10-year sentence. "In 2010 and until I left in 2013, the water always had a brown tint to it. Not to mention the dust clouds that used to come off the dump trucks ... which we all breathed in.... Every single day I would wake up and there would be a layer of dust on everything," he writes from inside the prison. When Morgenstern was sent back to SCI Fayette in 2016 after he violated parole, he found that the dust issue had abated a bit -- work at the dump has been stalled for a year due to litigation -- but the water still runs brownish and sometimes has "a funky smell." He says he knows that the environment in and around the prison is still "messed up" and he's concerned that his immune system, already weakened from fighting and overcoming cancer, won't be able to withstand another onslaught of toxic exposure. "I myself have no doubt that if I'm kept here at Fayette, I will once again become sick," he writes.Likewise, in Navasota, Texas, Keith Milo Cole and John Wesley Ford, aging prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit, worry about how their prolonged exposure to arsenic-laced water and extreme heat during summer months may have affected their health over the long term. Like Morgenstern, Cole says the water at his unit was brown until a federal judge ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to provide the prisoners safe drinking water. "It used to be where you could take a white wash rag and put it in the sink and water would run on it about 10 or 15 minutes, and it would actually turn brown," says Cole, who is serving a life sentence.Farther west, in California, Kenneth Hartman was nearly 30 years into a life sentence when he contracted valley fever in 2008 at the California State Prison in Lancaster. The infection, caused by inhaling a soil-dwelling fungus, can be devastating. Though it is often mistaken for the common flu, it can kill people or leave those infected with lifelong symptoms. "The intensity or severity [of my symptoms] kept increasing to the point that I clearly remember thinking, if I get any sicker, I'm going to die," Hartman says, writing from Lancaster where he is still incarcerated. "My physical strength was near to zero. ... I had a persistent dry cough, severe night sweats and bouts of vertigo that rendered me practically immobile."The plight of these prisoners points to a nationwide problem that's inextricably linked to power imbalances within the US criminal legal system -- a system in which prisoners are often out of sight and thus out of the public mind.As a special investigation by Truthout and Earth Island Journal shows, the toxic impact of prisons extends far beyond any individual prison, or any specific region in the United States. Though some prisons provide particularly egregious examples, mass incarceration in the US impacts the health of prisoners, prison-adjacent communities and local ecosystems from coast to coast.A 700 Percent Increase in Prisoner PopulationThe US locks up more people per capita than any other nation in the world. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, currently some 2.3 million people are confined in more than 6,000 prisons, jails and detention centers operated by multiple federal, state, county and private actors. That's about the population of Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the nation.Since the 1970s, the US has seen a 700 percent increase in the number of people imprisoned, a result of the growth in "tough on crime" and "war on drugs" policies, as well as a concerted effort to control and minimize the power of social movements and other forms of resistance from within communities of color, says David Naguib Pellow, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who's writing a book on prisons and environmental justice. The rate at which we lock people up today is some five-times higher than most countries, even though the crime rate in the US is comparable to that of other stable, industrialized nations.Holding large groups of people in closed facilities brings with it a host of associated civil and human rights problems -- problems that have been well documented. But until recently, not much thought or research had been expended on the connections between mass incarceration and environmental issues, that is, problems that arise when prisons are sited on or near toxic sites, as well as when prisons themselves becomes sources of toxic contamination.Paul Wright, executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center, was among the few people who began to look into this connection on a broad scale nearly three decades ago. When Wright was serving time in Washington State's McNeil Island prison in the 1990s, the tap water there too, used to run brown. "Yet the prison officials would be putting up signs saying the water is safe to drink," he recalls. "There were a lot of environmental issues going on within the prison. It got me thinking. Just seeing how the prisons were on everything, I didn't think they would be any better on the environment."So Wright, who along with fellow prisoner Ed Mead, had recently started publishing Prison Legal News -- a magazine where prisoners and their families speak up about criminal legal policy and reform -- began filing public records requests for water pollution related complaints in state and federal prisons across the country. "Sure enough, we got all kinds of stuff back saying that the prisons were literally sources of toxic pollution," he says. In 2007, Prison Legal News published findings from 17 states exposing issues related to sewage and sanitation violations in dozens of prisons.Once he got out in 2003 after serving 17 years, Wright expanded Prison Legal News into the Human Rights Defense Center, a Florida-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of people held in US detention facilities. In 2014, the Center launched the Prison Ecology Project, which Wright says aims "first and foremost" to map the extent of the intersections between mass incarceration and environmental degradation, and then "do something to change it.""People [on the outside] generally aren't thinking of prisons and jails as environmental problems or as places where people have legitimate concerns about the environment," Wright says.It's well known that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation. Polluting facilities are more likely to be built in these communities, and environmental regulations are often less stringently enforced in these neighborhoods. This legacy of environmental injustice extends to the siting of prisons, which, too, are often located in or close to low-income communities. Additionally, they are built on some of the least desirable and most contaminated lands in the country, such as old mining sites, Superfund cleanup sites and landfills. According to a GIS [geographic information system] analysis of a 2010 dataset of state and federal prisons by independent cartographer Paige Williams, at least 589 federal and state prisons are located within three miles of a Superfund cleanup site on the National Priorities List, with 134 of those prisons located within just one mile."A lot of people, when they think of environment and toxic polluters, they think corporations, and they think that the government is somehow a solution to this problem," Wright says. "The prison ecology issue turns that whole thing on its head because in these cases it's the government that's chosen to build these prisons on toxic waste sites or allowed them to become sources of toxic waste. And it is literally holding people at gunpoint at these sites and exposing them."Former Industrial Sites "Recycled" for PrisonsTo get to SCI Fayette, where Matthew Morgenstern is incarcerated along with more than 2,000 other men, you may have to pass through the borough of Brownsville -- a small industrial area along the Monongahela River southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This used to be a bustling business center connected to the steel industry, but today downtown Brownsville wears the look of a town that's well past its glory days.America's rust belt is scattered with places like this, where the retreat of industries in the 1970s left working class folks without opportunities. In many of these places, prisons began to fill in the gap, occupying lands left degraded by industrial activities and offering often-unfulfilled promises of employment to impoverished communities.The land being "recycled" has, in many cases, already been devastated -- to an extent that the construction of a prison may be seen as its only "acceptable" use."One of the patterns that we see is where corporations have come in, they pillage the environment, be it by mining, forestry or whatever, and then when everything has been exhausted, when trees have been cut down, every last grain of ore has been ripped from the soil, and everything has been contaminated and poisoned in the process, the final solution is, okay now we're going to build a prison here," Wright says.SCI Fayette -- which is located in the small rural community of LaBelle, about a 12-minute winding drive from Brownsville -- is a perfect example of this. The 237-acre men's prison began operating in 2003 on one corner of what, in the 1940s through the 1970s, was one of the largest coal preparation plants in the world, where coal from nearby mines was washed and graded. The "cleaned" coal was then shipped off to power plants and other markets, while the remaining coal refuse was dumped on and around the hilly, 1,357-acre site. By the mid-1990s, when its owners filed for bankruptcy and abandoned the site, an estimated 40 million tons of coal refuse had been dumped there. At some places the waste piled up some 150 feet.In 1996, the property was purchased by a local company, Matt Canestrale Contracting (MCC), which entered into a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to dump coal ash -- waste produced by burning coal in power plants -- on the site as part of a land "reclamation" effort. Since it opened in 1997, more than 5 million tons of coal ash has been deposited at the dumpsite, which is right across the road from SCI Fayette.The problem with coal ash is that it's way more toxic than unburned coal waste as it contains higher concentrations of heavy metals and minerals, including mercury, lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, boron and thallium. At unlined sites, like LaBelle, contaminants can leach into the local water and fine "fugitive dust" can blow into the air.Coal ash can cause or contribute to many serious health conditions, including respiratory problems, hypertension, heart problems, brain and nervous system damage, liver damage, stomach and intestinal ulcers, and many forms of cancer, including skin, stomach, lung, urinary tract and kidney. Therefore, many environmental experts say the risks posed by such reclamation efforts outweigh the so-called benefits.Right when the coal ash dumping started, LaBelle residents began complaining to the DEP that fugitive dust was making them sick. Over the years, they reported suffering from respiratory problems, kidney failure, and several types of cancer. But the DEP did little more than issue fines. It allowed the prison construction to go forward, essentially putting the health of the entire prison population, as well its staff, at risk.In 2013, Citizens Coal Council, a coal industry watchdog, filed a federal lawsuit against MCC, alleging that the company was responsible for polluting the local air and water due to its failure to curb fugitive dust. The suit noted that 50 families lived in LaBelle, but made no mention of the prisoners at SCI Fayette.However, prisoners and staff at SCI Fayette have been experiencing health issues that are similar to those reported by local community members. In fact, SCI Fayette is also exposed to two other potential sources of pollution: The boiler system for the prison burns coal for its power (and creates additional coal ash waste), and a new coal terminal along the riverbank, right next to the prison, transfers 3- to 10-million tons of coal per year from boats to rail.</div>...=Here's What 7.8 Billion Gallons of Toxic Coal Sludge Looks Like<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/toxic-coal-ash-sludge-mountaintop-removal-1944848278.html">http://www.ecowatch.com/toxic-coal-ash-sludge-mountaintop-removal-1944848278.html</a>
==
https://www.facingsouth.org/2010/09/special-report-industry-wraps-coal-ash-regulation-fight-in-the-mantle-of-civil-rights.html

sue s
Standing out among the more than 250 people who testified at the recent <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/2010/09/hundreds-speak-out-at-epas-coal-ash-hearing-in-north-carolina.html">Environmental Protection Agency hearing</a>

on proposed coal ash regulations in Charlotte, N.C. was one speaker

with an especially distinguished background: Charles Steele Jr. (in photo at right),

the first African-American member of the Tuscaloosa City Council and a

former Democratic state senator from Alabama who went on to lead the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the legendary civil rights

organization whose first president was Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Steele left SCLC last year and now runs a <a href="http://www.charlessteeleandassociates.com/">consulting firm</a> in Atlanta. [CSA unfortunate acronym]

Given Steele's work on behalf of civil rights, one might have expected

him to support better regulation of coal ash -- perhaps talking about

the fact that many of the U.S. communities at greatest risk from the

most potentially hazardous impoundments have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-nilles/poverty-near-the-high-haz_b_225013.html">higher-than-average poverty rates</a>. Or about the finding that environmental contamination from coal ash dumps is <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/2010/05/power-politics.html">concentrated in high-poverty communities</a>. Or about the <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/2009/05/tva-sends-spilled-coal-ash-to-impoverished-black-communities-in-georgia-and-alabama.html">controversial decision</a> to dump the toxic coal ash waste from the <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/2010/05/disaster-in-east-tennessee.html">Tennessee Valley Authority's 2008 Kingston disaster</a>

in Tennessee in an impoverished, majority-black farming community in

Alabama, in a landfill where runoff now contains levels of

cancer-causing arsenic at more than <a href="http://creekkeeper.blogspot.com/2010/02/arrowhead-landfill-complaint-021610.html">80 times the safe drinking water standard</a>.
==

The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston Coal Company's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_slurry_impoundment" class="mw-redirect" title="Coal slurry impoundment">coal slurry impoundment</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dam" title="Dam">dam</a> #3, located on a hillside in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_County,_West_Virginia" title="Logan County, West Virginia">Logan County</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia" title="West Virginia">West Virginia</a>, burst, four days after having been declared 'satisfactory' by a federal mine inspector.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#cite_note-MM-1">[1]</a>

The resulting flood unleashed approximately 132,000,000 US gallons (500,000 m3) of black waste water, cresting over 30 ft high, upon the residents of 16 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_town" title="Coal town">coal towns</a> along <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_%28Guyandotte_River%29" title="Buffalo Creek (Guyandotte River)">Buffalo Creek</a>

Hollow. Out of a population of 5,000 people, 125 were killed, 1,121

were injured, and over 4,000 were left homeless. 507 houses were

destroyed, in addition to forty-four mobile homes and 30 businesses.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#cite_note-MM-1">[1]</a> The disaster destroyed or damaged homes in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders,West_Virginia" title="Saunders, West Virginia">Saunders</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardee,West_Virginia" title="Pardee, West Virginia">Pardee</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorado,West_Virginia" title="Lorado, West Virginia">Lorado</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craneco,West_Virginia" title="Craneco, West Virginia">Craneco</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lundale,West_Virginia" title="Lundale, West Virginia">Lundale</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stowe,West_Virginia" title="Stowe, West Virginia">Stowe</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crites,West_Virginia" title="Crites, West Virginia">Crites</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrobe,West_Virginia" title="Latrobe, West Virginia">Latrobe</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinette,West_Virginia" title="Robinette, West Virginia">Robinette</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amherstdale,West_Virginia" title="Amherstdale, West Virginia">Amherstdale</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becco,West_Virginia" title="Becco, West Virginia">Becco</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanco,West_Virginia" title="Fanco, West Virginia">Fanco</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braeholm,West_Virginia" title="Braeholm, West Virginia">Braeholm</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accoville,West_Virginia" title="Accoville, West Virginia">Accoville</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown,Logan_County,West_Virginia" title="Crown, Logan County, West Virginia">Crown</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kistler,_West_Virginia" title="Kistler, West Virginia">Kistler</a>. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#cite_note-2">[2]</a> In its legal filings, Pittston Coal referred to the accident as "an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_God" title="Act of God">Act of God</a>."

Dam #3, constructed of coarse mining refuse dumped into the Middle

Fork of Buffalo Creek starting in 1968, failed first, following heavy

rains. The water from Dam #3 then overwhelmed Dams #2 and #1. Dam #3 had

been built on top of coal slurry sediment that had collected behind

dams # 1 and #2, instead of on solid bedrock. Dam #3 was approximately

260 feet above the town of Saunders when it failed.

</div></div></div><div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:302px;"><div class="thumbcaption">

Aerial View of Buffalo Creek area taken the day after impoundment dam #3 failed.</div>

</div>

<h2>Contents</h2>

</div></div><div id="toc" class="toc"><ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#Investigation">1 Investigation</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#Results">2 Results</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#Miscellaneous">3 Miscellaneous</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#See_also">4 See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#Notes">5 Notes</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#References">6 References</a>

<ul><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#Bibliography">6.1 Bibliography</a></li></ul>

</li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#External_links">7 External links</a></li></ul>

</div>

<h2>Investigation</h2>Two commissions investigated the disaster. One, the Governor's Ad Hoc Commission of Inquiry, appointed by Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_A.Moore,Jr." class="mw-redirect" title="Arch A. Moore, Jr.">Arch A. Moore, Jr.</a>,

was made up entirely of members sympathetic to the coal industry or

government officials whose departments might be complicit in the genesis

of the flood. After Arnold Miller, then president of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers" title="United Mine Workers">United Mine Workers</a>,

and others were rebuffed by Gov. Moore regarding their request that a

coal miner be added to the commission, a citizen's commission assembled

to provide an independent review of the disaster. The Governor's

Commission of Inquiry report <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.marshall.edu/library/speccoll/virtual_museum/buffalo_creek/html/GAHCI-Report.pdf">[1]</a> called for legislation and further inquiry by the local prosecutor. The report <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://wvgazette.com/static/series/buffalocreek/Commission/commission.html">[2]</a>

by the Citizen's Commission concluded the Buffalo Creek-Pittston Coal

Company was guilty of murdering at least 124 men, women and children.

Additionally, the chair of the Citizen's Commission, Norman Williams,

the Deputy Director of the West Virginia Department of Natural

Resources, called publicly and in testimony before the legislature for

the outlawing of coal strip mining throughout the state. He testified

that strip mining could not exist as a profit-making industry unless it

is allowed by the state to pass on the costs of environmental damage to

the private landowner or the public.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

The state of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia" title="West Virginia">West Virginia</a> also sued the company for $100 million for disaster and relief damages, but Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_A.Moore,Jr." class="mw-redirect" title="Arch A. Moore, Jr.">Arch A. Moore, Jr.</a> settled for just $1 million, three days before leaving office in 1977. The lawyers for the plaintiffs, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_%26_Porter" title="Arnold & Porter">Arnold & Porter</a>

of Washington, D.C., donated a portion of their legal fees for the

construction of a new community center. West Virginia has yet to build

the center, though it was promised by Governor Moore in May 1972.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Gerald M. Stern, an attorney with Arnold & Porter, wrote a book entitled The Buffalo Creek Disaster

about representing the victims of the flood. It includes descriptions

of his experiences dealing with the political and legal environment of

West Virginia, where the influence of large coal mining corporations is

intensely significant to the local culture and communities. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociologist" class="mw-redirect" title="Sociologist">Sociologist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_T._Erikson" title="Kai T. Erikson">Kai T. Erikson</a>, son of distinguished psychologist and sociologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Erikson" title="Erik Erikson">Erik Erikson</a>, was called as an expert witness and published a study on the effects of the disaster entitled Everything In Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood (1978). Erikson's book later won the Sorokin Award, granted by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sociological_Association" title="American Sociological Association">American Sociological Association</a> for an "outstanding contribution to the progress of sociology."[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

Simpson-Housley and De Man (1989) found that, 17 years later, the residents of Buffalo Creek scored higher on a measure of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety#Trait_anxiety" title="Anxiety">trait anxiety</a> in comparison to the residents of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopperston,_West_Virginia" title="Kopperston, West Virginia">Kopperston</a>, a nearby <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_town" title="Coal town">coal town</a> that did not experience the flood.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>Results</h2>Dennis

Prince and some 625 survivors of the flood sued the Pittston Coal

Company, seeking $64 million in damages ($292 million in 2011 dollars).

They settled in June 1974 for $13.5 million, or approximately $13,000

for each individual after legal costs ($62.4 thousand each in 2014

dollars). A second suit was filed by 348 child survivors, who sought

$225 million; they settled for $4.8 million in June 1974.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]

<h2>Miscellaneous</h2>Kerry

Albright became known as the "miracle baby" of the disaster. Running

from the leading edge of the water, his mother threw him just above the

flood level moments before she drowned. He survived with few ill

effects, and was raised by his father. His survival gave hope and

inspiration to other survivors.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood#cite_note-http:.2F.2Fwww.webcitation.org.2F6IqaPgDV9-3">[3]</a>

On their 2001 release <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Blood_Cells_%28album%29" title="White Blood Cells (album)">White Blood Cells</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Stripes" title="The White Stripes">The White Stripes</a>

song "This Protector" alludes to the Buffalo Creek Disaster from the

federal mine inspector point of view, through lyrics such as "300 people

living out in West Virginia/have no idea of all these thoughts that lie

within ya".[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research" title="Wikipedia:No original research">original research?</a>]

In the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCIS%28TV_series%29" title="NCIS (TV series)">NCIS</a> episode "Corporal Punishment", <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCIS_characters#Dr.Donald_.22Ducky.22_Mallard" title="List of NCIS characters">Dr. Mallard</a> references the Buffalo Creek Disaster when discussing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTSD" class="mw-redirect" title="PTSD">PTSD</a> in a soldier returning from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War">Iraq War</a>.

On their 2004 release, the band American Minor includes a song titled

"Buffalo Creek" that was written about the Buffalo Creek disaster.

<h2>See also</h2><ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster" title="Aberfan disaster">Aberfan disaster</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_slurry_impoundment" class="mw-redirect" title="Coal slurry impoundment">Coal slurry impoundment</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_County_coal_slurry_spill" title="Martin County coal slurry spill">Martin County coal slurry spill</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sludge%28film%29" title="Sludge (film)">Sludge</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Buffalo_Creek_Flood:An_Act_of_Man" title="The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man">The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man</a></li></ul>

<h2>Notes</h2>

<ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-MM-1">
</li></ol><div id="bodyContent" class="mw-body-content"><li id="cite_note-MM-1"> Modern Marvels: Engineering Disasters of the 70s. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History%28U.S.TV_channel%29" title="History (U.S. TV channel)">The History Channel</a>.</li>

<li id="cite_note-2">
</li><li id="cite_note-2"> <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.wvculture.org/history/buffcreek/intro.html">http://www.wvculture.org/history/buffcreek/intro.html</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-http:.2F.2Fwww.webcitation.org.2F6IqaPgDV9-3">
</li><div class="reflist" style="list-style-type: decimal;"><ol class="references"><li value="3" id="cite_note-http:.2F.2Fwww.webcitation.org.2F6IqaPgDV9-3"> <cite class="citation news">Robinson, Julie (January 26, 2013). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvgazette.com%2FLife%2F201301250244&date=2013-08-13">"Buffalo Creek 'miracle baby' tells story to Reader's Digest"</a>. West Virginia Gazette. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wvgazette.com/Life/201301250244">the original</a> on 13 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2013.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABuffalo+Creek+flood&rft.atitle=Buffalo+Creek+%27miracle+baby%27+tells+story+to+Reader%27s+Digest&rft.aufirst=Julie&rft.aulast=Robinson&rft.date=2013-01-26&rft.genre=article&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvgazette.com%2FLife%2F201301250244&rft.jtitle=West+Virginia+Gazette&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li></ol>

</div>

<h2>References</h2><h3>Bibliography</h3><ul><li>Kai T. Erikson, Everything In Its Path <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0671240676" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn">ISBN 0-671-24067-6</a></li><li>Gerald M. Stern, The Buffalo Creek Disaster <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0394723430" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn">ISBN 0-394-72343-0</a></li><li>Buffalo Creek – Valley of Death – Oral history by Carlene Mowrey</li></ul>

Last Ragged Breath - by Julia Keller - fictionalized account

<h2>External links</h2><div id="mw-content-text" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" lang="en"><ul><li><cite class="citation web"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://wvgazette.com/static/series/buffalocreek/index.html">"Voices of Buffalo Creek"</a>. Charleston Gazette. Retrieved April 27, 2005.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABuffalo+Creek+flood&rft.atitle=Voices+of+Buffalo+Creek&rft.genre=unknown&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwvgazette.com%2Fstatic%2Fseries%2Fbuffalocreek%2Findex.html&rft.jtitle=Charleston+Gazette&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li><li><cite class="citation web"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.marshall.edu/library/speccoll/virtual_museum/buffalo_creek/html/default.asp">"Buffalo Creek Flood"</a>. Marshall University Special Collections. Retrieved February 25, 2013.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABuffalo+Creek+flood&rft.atitle=Buffalo+Creek+Flood&rft.genre=unknown&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marshall.edu%2Flibrary%2Fspeccoll%2Fvirtual_museum%2Fbuffalo_creek%2Fhtml%2Fdefault.asp&rft.jtitle=Marshall+University+Special+Collections&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li><li><cite class="citation web"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wvculture.org/history/buffcreek/bctitle.html">"Buffalo Creek Flood"</a>. West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Retrieved October 28, 2007.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABuffalo+Creek+flood&rft.atitle=Buffalo+Creek+Flood&rft.genre=unknown&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvculture.org%2Fhistory%2Fbuffcreek%2Fbctitle.html&rft.jtitle=West+Virginia+Division+of+Culture+and+History&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li><li><cite class="citation web"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=8364">"Survivor recounts Buffalo Creek disaster"</a>. West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Retrieved February 27, 2009.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABuffalo+Creek+flood&rft.atitle=Survivor+recounts+Buffalo+Creek+disaster&rft.genre=unknown&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvpubcast.org%2Fnewsarticle.aspx%3Fid%3D8364&rft.jtitle=West+Virginia+Public+Broadcasting&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li><li><cite class="citation web"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.berea.edu/hutchinslibrary/specialcollections/saa101.asp">"Guide

to the Council of Southern Mountains Records includes documents

pertaining to Buffalo Creek interviews, articles, activism"</a>. Berea College Special Collections and Archives. Retrieved August 3, 2009.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABuffalo+Creek+flood&rft.atitle=Guide+to+the+Council+of+Southern+Mountains+Records+includes+documents+pertaining+to+Buffalo+Creek++interviews%2C+articles%2C+activism&rft.genre=unknown&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.berea.edu%2Fhutchinslibrary%2Fspecialcollections%2Fsaa101.asp&rft.jtitle=Berea+College+Special+Collections+and+Archives&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li></ul>

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system" title="Geographic coordinate system">Coordinates</a>: <img style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; cursor: pointer;" alt="" title="Show location on an interactive map" class="wmamapbutton noprint" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/WMA_button2b.png/17px-WMA_button2b.png" /><a style="white-space: nowrap;" class="external text" href="https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Buffalo_Creek_flood&params=37.797196_N_-81.663769_E_type:city_region:US">37°47′50″N 81°39′50″W</a>

</div>

    <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:History_of_West_Virginia" title="Category:History of West Virginia">History of West Virginia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Environmental_disasters_in_the_United_States" title="Category:Environmental disasters in the United States">Environmental disasters in the United States</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Tailings_dam_failures" title="Category:Tailings dam failures">Tailings dam failures</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Disasters_in_West_Virginia" title="Category:Disasters in West Virginia">Disasters in West Virginia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Logan_County,_West_Virginia" title="Category:Logan County, West Virginia">Logan County, West Virginia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Dam_failures_in_the_United_States" title="Category:Dam failures in the United States">Dam failures in the United States</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1972_floods" title="Category:1972 floods">1972 floods</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1972_in_the_environment" title="Category:1972 in the environment">1972 in the environment</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1972_natural_disasters_in_the_United_States" title="Category:1972 natural disasters in the United States">1972 natural disasters in the United States</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1972_in_West_Virginia" title="Category:1972 in West Virginia">1972 in West Virginia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Coal_mining_disasters_in_West_Virginia" title="Category:Coal mining disasters in West Virginia">Coal mining disasters in West Virginia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Waste_disposal_incidents" title="Category:Waste disposal incidents">Waste disposal incidents</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Environmental_issues_with_coal" title="Category:Environmental issues with coal">Environmental issues with coal</a></li></ul></div></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==<br /></font><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_County_coal_slurry_spill">Martin County coal slurry spill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_County_<b>coal</b>_<b>slurry</b>_spill</cite></font></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="32"><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:0;ri:;site:en.wikipedia.org" data-async-trigger="cra-0-filled" data-ved="0ahUKEwin3PPT7ObNAhXBNSYKHdASAVUQ5CsIJjAA"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Wikipedia<span class="_Bs" /></font></div></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st">The Martin County <em>coal slurry</em> spill was an accident that occurred after midnight on October 11, 2000 when the bottom of a <em>coal slurry impoundment</em> owned by Massey Energy in Martin ... Martin County,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Kentucky</span> · <em>Tailings dam failures</em> · <em>Dam failures</em> in the United States · <em>Coal</em> mining disasters in Kentucky · Waste disposal<wbr />&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="39"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood">Buffalo Creek flood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood</cite></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="39"><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:1;ri:;site:en.wikipedia.org" data-async-trigger="cra-1-filled" data-ved="0ahUKEwin3PPT7ObNAhXBNSYKHdASAVUQ5CsILTAB"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Wikipedia<span class="_Bs" /></font></div></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st">The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston <em>Coal</em> Company's <em>coal slurry impoundment dam</em> #3, ... Aerial View of Buffalo Creek area taken the day after <em>impoundment dam</em> #3 <em>failed</em>.</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="46"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.statejournal.com/story/20267555/why-did-consols-robinson-run-slurry-impoundment-dam-fail">Why did Consol's Robinson Run slurry impoundment dam fail ...</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">www.statejournal.com/.../why-did-consols-robinson-run-<b>slurry</b>-<b>impoun</b>...</cite><span class="_YM" /></font><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:2;ri:;site:statejournal.com" data-async-trigger="cra-2-filled" data-ved="0ahUKEwin3PPT7ObNAhXBNSYKHdASAVUQ5CsIMDAC"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The State Journal<span class="_Bs" /></font></div></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st"><span class="f">Dec 5, 2012 - </span>Why did <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Consol'</span>s Robinson Run <em>slurry impoundment dam fail</em>? Posted: Dec ... Harrison Co. first responder: <em>Coal slurry</em> soupy, milkshake-like&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="50"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.southwings.org/our-work/coal-slurry-ash/">Coal Slurry and Coal Ash | SouthWings</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">www.southwings.org/our-work/<b>coal</b>-<b>slurry</b>-ash/</cite></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="50"><div class="s"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st"><em>Coal sludge impoundments</em>, or “ponds,” can store billions of gallons of liquid <em>coal</em> ... Catastrophic <em>dam failures</em>—such as the one at Buffalo Creek in 1972 that&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="56"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.wise-uranium.org/mdafin.html">The Inez coal tailings dam failure (Kentucky, USA)</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">www.wise-uranium.org/mdafin.html</cite></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="56"><div class="s"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st"><span class="f">Jan 18, 2008 - </span>"The <em>failure</em> of the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Big Branch Refuse <em>Impoundment</em></span> and subsequent inundation of the 1-C Mine occurred because Martin County <em>Coal</em>&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="63"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/08/canada-largest-coal-slurry-spill/">Did Canada Just Have the Largest Coal Slurry Spill in Its History?</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">ecowatch.com/2013/11/08/canada-largest-<b>coal</b>-<b>slurry</b>-spill/</cite></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="63"><div class="s"><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st"><span class="f">Nov 8, 2013 - </span>... may be the largest <em>coal slurry</em> spill in its history when a <em>dam failed</em> at the ... The U. S. government <em>coal impoundment</em> location and information&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="70"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/many-coal-sludge-impoundments-have-weak-walls-federal-study-says/2013/04/24/76c5be2a-acf9-11e2-a8b9-2a63d75b5459_story.html">Many coal sludge impoundments have weak walls, federal study says ...</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">https://www.washingtonpost.com/...<b>coal</b>-<b>sludge</b>-<b>impoundments</b>...</cite></font></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="70"><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><div class="crc"><div class="crl" data-async-context="res:6;ri:;site:washingtonpost.com" data-async-trigger="cra-6-filled" data-ved="0ahUKEwin3PPT7ObNAhXBNSYKHdASAVUQ5CsISzAG"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Washington Post<span class="_Bs" /></font></div></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st"><span class="f">Apr 24, 2013 - </span>Many of the man-made ponds for storing toxic <em>sludge</em> from <em>coal</em> mining operations have ... with compaction of <em>dams</em> but that it “has not found any indication that any <em>coal slurry impoundment</em> is in imminent danger of <em>failure</em>. ... There are <b>596 <em>coal slurry impoundments</em> in 21 states,</b> according to the Mine Safety&nbsp;...</span></font></div></div></div></div><div class="g"><div class="rc" data-hveid="77"><h3 class="r"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://ohvec.org/issues/slurry_impoundments/articles/2002_12.html">Is a coal slurry impoundment disaster coming to a community near you?</a></font></h3><div class="s"><div><div class="f kv _SWb" style="white-space:nowrap"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><cite class="_Rm">ohvec.org/issues/<b>slurry</b>_<b>impoundments</b>/articles/2002_12.html</cite></font></div></div></div></div></div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="st">But not to worry, those <em>impoundment failures</em> prompted federal mine safety ... Behind the <em>dam</em>, they create <em>slurry</em> lakes, which store the liquid waste leftover from&nbsp;...</span><br />==</font><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman" size="4">===</font></p><p><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" face="Times New Roman" size="4">~SLAPP //</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...<br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> The complaint remains under investigation.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

'This lawsuit is outrageous'

In the latest twist in the fight over the landfill, the facility's current owner — <a href="http://www.gghcorp.com/">Green Group Holdings LLC </a>of

Canton, Georgia — is suing Black Belt Citizens' officers for slander

and libel. The lawsuit announced last week accuses them of using the

group's website and Facebook page "in a false and malicious manner" and

says they have made "knowingly false" statements to the media.

The lawsuit focuses on comments made by visitors to the group's Facebook page relating to controversies over the landfill's <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/arrowhead_landfill_uniontown_r.html">activities near an old cemetery</a>

and accusations that the facility is polluting the community and

oppressing local residents. Among the comments the lawsuit calls false

and defamatory are these remarks by the group's president, Esther

Calhoun. The bold text is the plaintiff's own, showing what the company

objects to:

"Its a landfill, its a tall mountain of coal ash and it has affected us. It affected our everyday life. It really has done a lot to our freedom. Its another impact of slavery. ...Cause we are in a black residence, things change? And you can't walk outside. And you can not breathe. I mean, you are in like prison. I mean, its like all your freedom is gone.

As a black woman, our voices are not heard. EPA hasn't listened and

ADEM has not listened. Whether you are white or black, rich or poor, it

should still matter and we all should have the right to clean air and clean water. I want to see EPA do their job."</blockquote>

Last November, and again last month, the company's attorney demanded

that Black Belt Citizens delete and also retract and repudiate the

posts. The group removed them but refused to retract and repudiate them.

Arguing that the defendants have thus "permanently injured and damaged

the business and reputation of Plaintiffs," the lawsuit seeks $5 million

in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages for each

count.

"This lawsuit is outrageous," said Marianne Engelman Lado of

Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing community members in the

civil rights complaint. "I believe this is nothing more than an attempt

to quiet those who have lifted their voices in protest. Green Group

Holdings should be ashamed of itself for trying to intimidate community

members to prevent them from exercising their rights to be heard. This

is the latest in a long line of impacts to the community."

Green Group Holdings bought the Arrowhead facility in 2012 after the previous owner, Perry County Associates, <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/02/alabama-dump-taking-tvas-spilled-coal-ash-declares-bankruptcy.html">went bankrupt</a>. Green Group is <a href="http://www.gghcorp.com/about/investors/">backed by two privately held investors</a>:

Hertzog Contracting of Missouri and Knoxville, Tennessee-based Phillips

& Jordan, which helped managed the Arrowhead Landfill under the

previous owner.

Ernest Kaufman, Green Group's president and CEO, <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/04/arrowhead_landfill_owners_sue.html">said</a>

that Arrowhead "is one of the safest facilities of its kind in the

entire country, and despite being the most heavily inspected landfill in

Alabama, it has never once been cited for a violation."

But that doesn't mean problems haven't been documented there. Back

in 2010, before Green Group Holdings bought the landfill, Hurricane

Creekkeeper John Wathen of Alabama <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/02/complaint-cites-health-threats-at-alabama-dump-taking-tvas-spilled-coal-ash.html">sent a complaint to the EPA</a>

warning of environmental health threats there. He investigated nearby

residents' complaints of unusual runoff and sickening smells after TVA's

ash began arriving there and found arsenic levels 80 times the safe

drinking water standard in liquid waste that was being pumped from the

landfill at night....<a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2016/04/slander-suit-against-citizens-battling-alabama-coa.html">http://www.southernstudies.org/2016/04/slander-suit-against-citizens-battling-alabama-coa.html</a>

from chao:COAL ASH SLURRY SPILL
MSHA and George W. Bush
The Martin County Sludge Spill occurred after midnight on October 11, 2000 when the bottom of a coal sludge impoundment owned by Massey Energy in Martin County, Kentucky, broke into an abandoned underground mine below. The slurry came out of the mine openings, sending an estimated 306 million gallons (1.16 billion liters) of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. By morning, Wolf Creek was oozing with the black waste; on Coldwater Fork, a ten-foot (3 m) wide stream became a 100-yard (91 m) expanse of thick sludge.[9] Massey CEO Don Blankenship, who is also a board member of the US Chamber of Commerce, has spent millions of dollars to support judicial and state political campaigns, including $3M to buy a West Virginia state Supreme Court justice. Nearly another $400,000 was disbursed by Massey's employees, including Blankenship.[10]
Jack Spadaro, then the head of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy, investigated the spill and reported negligence on the part of Martin County Coal, a subsidiary of coal giant Massey Energy, and lax enforcement by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. According to Spadaro, the slurry pond had a spill in 1994 and Massey knew another break was nearly inevitable.[11] Spadaro’s former boss at Mine Safety, Davitt McAteer, defended Spadaro, telling 60 Minutes that major coal sludge fatalities are avoided only "by the grace of God," and that officials expected a report that recommended violations, fines, and possible criminal charges.[11] After Bush took office McAteer was replaced. Spadaro was accused of abusing his authority, and was reassigned to a Pittsburgh office four hours from his home. He resigned.[11]...During his terms, former President George W. Bush cut funding for mine safety enforcement by $15 million and replaced MSHA officials, such as Davitt McAteer, with representatives of corporate interests. In 2002, Bush named former Massey Energy official Stanley Suboleski to the MSHA review commission that decides all legal matters under the Federal Mine Act. David Lauriski, the former head of MSHA, spent 30 years as an executive in the mining industry before being tapped to head the agency, and resigned in 2005 to work for a mine-industry consulting company. The next head of MSHA Richard Stickler, appointed by Bush in September 2006, was a former manager of Beth Energy mines. The Bush administration also cut 170 positions from MSHA.[12]
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_County_coal_slurry_spill
The Martin County coal slurry spill was an accident that occurred after midnight on October 11, 2000 when the bottom of a coal slurry impoundment owned by Massey Energy in Martin County, Kentucky, USA, broke into an abandoned underground mine below.[1] The slurry came out of the mine openings, sending an estimated 306,000,000 US gallons (1.16×109 l; 255,000,000 imp gal) of slurry down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. By morning, Wolf Creek was oozing with the black waste; on Coldwater Fork, a 10-foot (3.0 m) wide stream became a 100-yard (91 m) expanse of thick slurry.The spill was over five feet deep in places and covered nearby residents' yards. The spill polluted hundreds of miles (300 – 500 km) of the Big Sandy River and its tributaries and the Ohio River. The water supply for over 27,000 residents was contaminated, and all aquatic life in Coldwater Fork and Wolf Creek was killed. The spill was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill (12 million US gallons (45,000 m3)) and one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the southeastern United States, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.[2] The spill was exceeded in volume by the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill in 2008.U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), oversaw the Mine Safety and Health Administration at the time. In 2002, a $5,600 fine was levied.[citation needed]Massey Energy spent $46 million in cleanup efforts and an additional $3 million in local fines and reported that "some citizens say the creek is cleaner now than before the spill."[3]In 2005 Appalshop filmmaker Robert Salyer released a documentary entitled Sludge, chronicling the continuing story of the Martin County disaster, the resulting federal investigation, and the looming threat of coal slurry ponds throughout the coalfield region. In the wake of the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill, Appalshop provided a web stream of Sludge for a limited time.[4]
TVA 2009 
...Originally TVA estimated that 1.7 million cubic yards of waste had burst through the storage facility. Company officials said the pond had contained a total of about 2.6 million cubic yards of sludge. However, the company revised its estimates on December 26, when it released an aerial survey showing that 5.4 million cubic yards (1.09 billion gallons) of fly ash was released from the storage facility.[2] Several days later, the estimate was increased to over 1 billion gallons spilled.[4] The size of the spill was larger than the amount TVA claimed to have been in the pond before the accident, a discrepancy that TVA was unable to explain.[5]
The TVA spill was 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, which released 10.9 million gallons of crude oil.[6] Cleanup was expected to take weeks and cost tens of millions of dollars.[7]
According to the TVA, rain totaling six inches in ten days[8] and 12°F temperatures were factors that contributed to the failure of the earthen embankment.[9]
The 40-acre pond was used to contain ash created by the coal-burning plant.[1] The water and ash that were released in the accident were filled with toxic substances. Each year coal preparation creates waste containing an estimated 13 tons of mercury, 3236 tons of arsenic, 189 tons of beryllium, 251 tons of cadmium, and 2754 tons of nickel, and 1098 tons of selenium.[10]...
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/TVA_Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_ash_spillhttp://www.motherjones.com/environment/2010/12/coal-ash-kingston-epa
It has been two years since an earthen dike holding back 1.1 billion gallons of coal slurry ruptured, unleashing a tsunami of dark gray sludge from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tennessee. The wave destroyed homes, surged into the yards of neighbors, and caused the nearby ponds and streams to overflow. More than 300 acres of land were covered in the stuff, and in the weeks after, the ash would travel as far as 30 miles downstream on the nearby Emory River. Locals refer to the "ash bergs" up to 40 feet tall that landed in their yards and floated down the river.
The environmental disaster for the first time raised the question of why coal-burning power plants are allowed to dump the fly ash waste—the fine, dust-like particles emitted when coal is burned to create power—into vast open pits. The ash, doused with water and left in these containment ponds for years, contains toxic elements like arsenic, mercury, and lead. But for decades, the disposal of the waste was left unregulated. Power plants produce more than 130 million tons of the ash each year, and while 43 percent of it gets recycled into products like cement and wallboard, much of the rest remains on site at coal-fired power plants around the country....=epa will regulatecoates<h1 class="title" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 16px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">America’s Second-Biggest Form Of Waste Is About To Be Federally Regulated For The First Time</h1><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The EPA has confirmed that on Friday, it will release its first-ever regulations on the second-largest form of waste generated in the United States: coal ash.<div id="in-content-ad" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">EPA spokesperson Rachel Dietz told ThinkProgress that the new rule will be likely be released in the early afternoon. When it is finalized, the rule is expected to include requirements on how coal ash should be disposed, how existing coal ash pits should be cleaned up, whether coal ash should be designated as a hazardous material, and who should be responsible for enforcing the rules.<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 18px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span id="trigger-slidedown" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Coal ash is a byproduct of coal burning, and often contains chemicals like arsenic, chromium, mercury, and lead. After producing it, coal companies sometimes dispose of it by dumping it into ditches, and filling those ditches with water. Those ditches, called coal ash ponds or lagoons, are often unlined, meaning the coal ash comes in direct contact with the environment. Right now, the Sierra Club estimates there are more than <a href="http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageNavigator/adv_bigpicture_coalash_map" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">1,400 coal ash sites</a> in the United States, most of which are located in close proximity to lakes and rivers due to the vast quantity of water needed to burn coal for power....<a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/americas-second-biggest-form-of-waste-is-about-to-be-federally-regulated-for-the-first-time/">http://www.globalpossibilities.org/americas-second-biggest-form-of-waste-is-about-to-be-federally-regulated-for-the-first-time/</a><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/28/epa-coal-ash-regulation/">http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/28/epa-coal-ash-regulation/</a><h1 id="pf-title" style="margin: 1em 0px; clear: both; direction: ltr; page-break-inside: avoid !important;">Court Victory Forces Foot-Dragging EPA to Act on Toxic Coal Ash</h1>Anastasia Pantsios<div id="pf-content" style="clear: both; line-height: 19.04px; direction: ltr;"><div class="pf-content">In response to a court victory by <a href="http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2014/white-house-begins-review-of-first-ever-coal-ash-rule" target="_blank" style="word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;">Earthjustice</a>, representing 11 environmental and public health groups and a Native American tribe, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched its first-ever review to create regulations on the storage and disposal of <a href="http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/coal-ash-energy/" style="word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;">coal ash</a>, a byproduct of <a href="http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/coal-mining-pollution/" style="word-wrap: break-word; text-decoration: none;">coal-fired power plants</a>.</div></div>OIRA: 7/14<h2 style="margin: 25px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Coal Ash Controversy</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">One controversial rule currently under OIRA review would create controls on the handling of coal ash, the dross from coal-fired power plants. Coal ash contains a host of hazardous substances, including arsenic, lead and mercury, and is the country's <a href="http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/guide/steam-electric/upload/Steam-Electric_EA_Proposed-rule_2013.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">most polluting</a> waste — more than all oil refineries, petrochemical plants, paper mills and incinerators combined — as well as being one of the country's <a href="http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/coalashletter.htm" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">largest sources</a> of waste overall. Questions about its handling burst into the news earlier this year after the toxic sludge spilled into the Dan River in North Carolina.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">
The rules for handling this waste, known as Effluent Limitations Guidelines, have not been changed since 1982, and many experts say they are weak. The EPA leaves most standards to the discretion of the states, many of which have done little to enforce and add protections. Essentially, most coal-fired power plants have been able to dump their ash indefinitely into unmonitored, open-air pits. Not surprisingly, the utility industry is resisting stronger controls to stave off costs of adopting new waste-handling methods and more technologically advanced water-treatment equipment.The ash is most often stored near power plants in artificial ponds from which nearby rivers, lakes and drinking water supplies can be contaminated — even if there is no catastrophic spill.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The EPA sent OIRA its proposed new rules in January 2013. The agency submitted five options from which it would choose the final rule. In its draft, the EPA indicated it would likely pick one of two options, which it listed as "preferred." Both set relatively tough standards on power companies.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">In the weeks leading to OIRA's completed review of the coal ash limits, a number of utility industry lobbyists and lawyers <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/oira_2040_meetings/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">met</a> with the office. While OIRA makes public a list of attendees and documents given to the office's representatives at meetings, it does not disclose the substance of their discussions. Such conversations are not unusual; any member of the public can meet with OIRA to discuss a rule. But the office has become a standard stop on the lobbying circuit for industries facing tighter regulations.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">A 2003 Government Accountability Office <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03929.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">study</a> found that "regulated parties," typically corporations or their lobbyists, frequently get what they want after meetings with OIRA. Sometimes, the language of the edited rule is similar to that proposed by the regulated parties themselves.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">When the rule on coal ash effluent emerged from OIRA, three more options had been added, a diluting of the two options the EPA favored. OIRA's draft dropped the tougher of EPA's preferred rules and identified those new, less demanding options as favored.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The office also recast the EPA's scientific findings. The agency initially stated that using ponds for storing the most toxic form of coal ash, the emissions captured in the smoke stack's final filter, did "not represent the best available technology for controlling pollutants in almost all circumstances." Revisions made during OIRA review recommended eliminating this conclusion, giving no explanation why. Other changes included softening data, such as reducing coal-fired power plants' share of toxic pollutants discharged to surface water from "at least 60 percent" to "50-60 percent." The post-OIRA version also recommended reducing the projected benefits of the EPA's higher standards, which the agency did.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The EPA reached its findings for handling coal ash after almost 10 years of extensive data collection, modeling and analysis. This work required the knowledge of biologists, chemists, engineers and toxicologists working on a team that varied in size from about eight to around 30 people at various phases. The EPA lists the staff in its Office of Water responsible for the rule in the document itself, on the agency's website and in press releases.<noapp style="line-height: 16px;"></noapp><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">It is difficult to know the qualifications of the people at OIRA who rewrote the EPA's draft rule. The only credentials disclosed by its website are those of the current administrator, Howard Shelanksi, who has a Ph.D. in economics, and his deputy, Andrei Greenawalt, a lawyer who was a policy adviser to the chief of staff from 2011 to 2013. ProPublica's request to the OMB for a list of OIRA staff went unanswered, as did repeated requests for an interview with Shelanski. OIRA also failed to respond to written questions about its lack of transparency...<p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/lobbyists-bidding-block-government-regs-sights-set-secretive-white-house?utm_source=et&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter#">http://www.propublica.org/article/lobbyists-bidding-block-government-regs-sights-set-secretive-white-house</a>

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duplicate w/o links:

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http://grist.org/news/five-years-after-tennessee-coal-slurry-disaster-epa-has-produced-no-new-rules/

Five years after Tennessee coal-slurry disaster, EPA has produced no new rules

ALEC’sVision of Pre-Empting EPA Coal Ash Regs Passes the House

by Sara Jerving — April 23, 2012 - 8:21am

Topics: Corporations, Environment

Projects: ALEC Exposed

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment on April 18 to the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012 (HR 4348) that would effectively pre-empt the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating coal ash, the waste from coal burning plants, as a hazardous waste. About 140 million tons of coal ash are produced by power plants in the United States each year. There are about 1,000 active coal ash storage sites across the country.

According to the EPA, the ash contains concentrations of arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and other metals, but the coal industry has claimed there is less mercury in the ash than in a fluorescent light bulb. However, the EPA found in 2010 that the cancer risk from arsenic near some unlined coal ash ponds was one in 50 -- 2,000 times the agency's regulatory goal. Additionally, researchers from the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, and Sierra Club have documented water contamination from coal ash sites in 186 locations. The new bill would strip the EPA's authority to regulate the ash and hand it over to the states.

The coal industry and its allies have been pushing several levers to stop the EPA from regulating coal ash, including passing resolutions through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Along with its coal ash provisions, the transportation bill, which is intended to extend highway and transit funding through September, includes measures that would advance the controversial trans-Canada Keystone XL pipeline.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/11473

Xcel is a member of the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA), an umbrella lobbying group for all coal ash interests that includes major coal burners Duke Energy, Southern Company and American Electric Power as well as dozens of other companies. The group argues that the so-called "beneficial-use industry" would be eliminated if a "hazardous" designation was given for coal ash waste.[22]

ACAA set up a front group called Citizens for Recycling First, which argues that using toxic coal ash as fill in other products is safe, despite evidence to the contrary.[22

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The American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) is an umbrella lobbying group for all coal ash interests that includes major coal burners Duke Energy, Southern Company and American Electric Power as well as dozens of other companies (see below). The group argues that the so-called "beneficial-use industry" would be eliminated if a "hazardous" designation was given for coal ash waste.

ACAA set up by front group called Citizens for Recycling First, which argues that using toxic coal ash as fill in other products is safe, despite evidence to the contrary.[1] ACAA helped set up the Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2), a cooperative government-industry effort to "help promote the beneficial use of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) and the environmental benefits that result from their use."[2]

Contents

[hide]

1 ACAA Members

2 Resources

2.1 References

2.2 Related SourceWatch articles

ACAA Members

AES Corporation

Alliant Energy

Ameren Energy

American Electric Power

Basin Electric Power Cooperative

Colorado Springs Utilities

Colstrip Energy Partnership

Constellation Energy

Dairyland Power Cooperative

Detroit Edison

Dominion

Duke Energy

Dynegy

E.ON U.S.

Exelon

FirstEnergy

Great River Energy

Kansas City Power & Light

Lower Colorado River Authority

Midwest Generation

Mirant

MDU Resources Group

Muscatine Power & Water

Nebraska Public Power District

Platte River Power Authority

Progress Energy

PPL

Public Service Enterprise Group

Public Service Company of New Hampshire

RRI Energy

Santee Cooper

Seminole Electric Cooperative

South Carolina Electric & Gas

Southern Company

Southern Illinois Power Cooperative

Sunflower Electric Power Corporation

TECO Energy

Tennessee Valley Authority

TransAlta

We Energies

Wolverine Power Cooperative

Xcel Energy

Resources

The American Coal Ash Association

15200 E. Girard Ave., Ste. 3050,

Aurora, CO 80014-3955

Phone: 720-870-7897

Fax: 720-870-7889

Email: info@acaa-usa.org

Website: http://www.acaa-usa.org/

References

? Coal-Fired Utilities to American Public: Kiss my Ash DeSmogBlog.com & PolluterWatch, October 27, 2010.

? "Coal Combustion Products Partnership" EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge, accessed March 2011.

Related SourceWatch articles

Front groups

Coal slurry impoundment

TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill

TVA Widows Creek coal waste spill

Massey Energy

Federal coal subsidies

Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources 2002-2008

State coal subsidies

Health effects of coal

Mercury and coal

Heavy metals and coal

Sulfur dioxide and coal

Environmental impacts of coal

Air pollution from coal-fired power plants

Coal sludge

Fly ash

United States and coal

Categories: Coal Issues | Energy | Environment | Front groups | Public relations case studies

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April 5 (Reuters) - A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday to force the Obama administration to finalize new rules regulating the containment and disposal of coal ash, a power plant byproduct activists say threatens public health.

Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and several other groups want the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize coal ash standards the agency proposed after a massive and expensive 2008 spill.

"It is well past time the EPA acts on promises made years ago to protect the nation from coal ash contamination and life-threatening coal ash ponds," Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans said in a statement. The groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The EPA proposed regulating coal ash, or byproducts of coal combustion in power plants, in 2010, after a spill at a storage site at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant.

The 2008 accident caused a flood of sludge for which cleanup was estimated to cost more than $1 billion.

Environmental groups way coal ash disposal can lead to groundwater contamination from improperly built storage ponds and landfills. The EPA has said contaminants such as mercury, arsenic and cadmium in coal ash could cause cancer if they get into the water supply.

Earthjustice last week released data obtained from the EPA that shows previously unknown instances of contaminated groundwater at 29 U.S. power plants. The report shows arsenic, lead and other pollutants in water near the coal-fired plants.

"When plants are monitoring they're generally, much more often than not, finding the contamination," Evans said. "Which then, of course, begs the question of, why aren't there federal protections to stop this contamination?"

The EPA did not respond to requests for comment.

The Obama administration is going into a tough election year fighting accusations that its regulations will stifle business in a struggling economy. Republicans in Congress have attacked the EPA in particular, accusing it of a war on coal-fired power plants due to new emissions rules.

The agency proposed two versions of the coal ash rules. One would be tougher on existing facilities; both versions would require liners and groundwater monitoring at new storage sites.

The final rules are expected sometime this summer, but Evans said the EPA needs to set a hard deadline to finish.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the proposed changes. Some say regulating coal ash would stifle industries that use recycled waste. In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in 2010, 35 senators argued the proposal would place unfair burdens on utilities and could cost jobs.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in October that would hand the responsibility for regulating coal ash disposal to the states. A bipartisan group of senators backed the bill, but it has not gained much attention since. (Reporting By Emily Stephenson; Editing by David Gregorio)

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<a href="http://grist.org/news/five-years-after-tennessee-coal-slurry-disaster-epa-has-produced-no-new-rules/">http://grist.org/news/five-years-after-tennessee-coal-slurry-disaster-epa-has-produced-no-new-rules/</a>

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<h1 class="headline" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2em; text-transform: none; text-decoration: none;">Five years after Tennessee coal-slurry disaster, EPA has produced no new rules</h1>

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</div>

<h1 class="title">ALEC’sVision of Pre-Empting EPA Coal Ash Regs Passes the House</h1>

<div class="meta">by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35298/sara-jerving" title="View user profile.">Sara Jerving</a> — April 23, 2012 - 8:21am</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-2">Topics: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations">Corporations</a>, <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/environment">Environment</a></li>

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<li class="vocabulary-9">Projects: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed">ALEC Exposed</a></li>

</ul>

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment on April 18 to the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012 <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas" title="reference on (HR 4348)" target="_blank">(HR 4348)</a> that would effectively pre-empt the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating coal ash, the waste from coal burning plants, as a hazardous waste. About 140 million tons of coal ash are produced by power plants in the United States each year. There are about 1,000 active coal ash storage sites across the country.

The coal industry and its allies have been pushing several levers to stop the EPA from regulating coal ash, including passing resolutions through the <a href="http://www.ALECexposed.org" title="reference on American Legislative Exchange Council" target="_blank">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC).

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/11473">http://www.prwatch.org/node/11473</a>

Xcel is a member of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association" title="American Coal Ash Association">American Coal Ash Association</a> (ACAA), an umbrella lobbying group for all coal ash interests that includes major coal burners <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Duke_Energy" title="Duke Energy">Duke Energy</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Southern_Company" title="Southern Company">Southern Company</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Electric_Power" title="American Electric Power">American Electric Power</a> as well as dozens of other companies. The group argues that the so-called "beneficial-use industry" would be eliminated if a "hazardous" designation was given for coal ash waste.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xcel_Energy#cite_note-desmog-21" title="">[22]</a>

ACAA set up a front group called <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_Recycling_First" title="Citizens for Recycling First">Citizens for Recycling First</a>, which argues that using toxic coal ash as fill in other products is safe, despite evidence to the contrary.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xcel_Energy#cite_note-desmog-21" title="">[22]</a>

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The American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) is an umbrella lobbying group for all coal ash interests that includes major coal burners <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Duke_Energy" title="Duke Energy">Duke Energy</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Southern_Company" title="Southern Company">Southern Company</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Electric_Power" title="American Electric Power">American Electric Power</a> as well as dozens of other companies (see below). The group argues that the so-called "beneficial-use industry" would be eliminated if a "hazardous" designation was given for coal ash waste.

ACAA set up by front group called <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_Recycling_First" title="Citizens for Recycling First">Citizens for Recycling First</a>, which argues that using toxic coal ash as fill in other products is safe, despite evidence to the contrary.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a> ACAA helped set up the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_Combustion_Products_Partnership" title="Coal Combustion Products Partnership">Coal Combustion Products Partnership</a> (C2P2), a cooperative government-industry effort to "help promote the beneficial use of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) and the environmental benefits that result from their use."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a>

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="javascript:toggleToc()" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>]</div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#ACAA_Members">1 ACAA Members</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#Resources">2 Resources</a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#References">2.1 References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#Related_SourceWatch_articles">2.2 Related SourceWatch articles</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>ACAA Members</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=AES_Corporation" title="AES Corporation" class="mw-redirect">AES Corporation</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alliant_Energy" title="Alliant Energy">Alliant Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ameren_Energy" title="Ameren Energy" class="mw-redirect">Ameren Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Electric_Power" title="American Electric Power">American Electric Power</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Basin_Electric_Power_Cooperative" title="Basin Electric Power Cooperative">Basin Electric Power Cooperative</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ray_D._Nixon_Power_Plant" title="Ray D. Nixon Power Plant">Colorado Springs Utilities</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Colstrip_Energy_Partnership&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Colstrip Energy Partnership (page does not exist)">Colstrip Energy Partnership</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Constellation_Energy" title="Constellation Energy">Constellation Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dairyland_Power_Cooperative" title="Dairyland Power Cooperative">Dairyland Power Cooperative</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Detroit_Edison" title="Detroit Edison">Detroit Edison</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dominion" title="Dominion">Dominion</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Duke_Energy" title="Duke Energy">Duke Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dynegy" title="Dynegy" class="mw-redirect">Dynegy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Exelon" title="Exelon">Exelon</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FirstEnergy" title="FirstEnergy">FirstEnergy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Great_River_Energy" title="Great River Energy">Great River Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kansas_City_Power_%26_Light" title="Kansas City Power & Light">Kansas City Power & Light</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lower_Colorado_River_Authority" title="Lower Colorado River Authority">Lower Colorado River Authority</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Midwest_Generation" title="Midwest Generation">Midwest Generation</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mirant" title="Mirant">Mirant</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=MDU_Resources_Group" title="MDU Resources Group">MDU Resources Group</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Muscatine_Generating_Station" title="Muscatine Generating Station">Muscatine Power & Water</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Nebraska_Public_Power_District" title="Nebraska Public Power District">Nebraska Public Power District</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Platte_River_Power_Authority" title="Platte River Power Authority">Platte River Power Authority</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Progress_Energy" title="Progress Energy">Progress Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Public_Service_Enterprise_Group" title="Public Service Enterprise Group">Public Service Enterprise Group</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Public_Service_Company_of_New_Hampshire" title="Public Service Company of New Hampshire">Public Service Company of New Hampshire</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=RRI_Energy" title="RRI Energy">RRI Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Santee_Cooper" title="Santee Cooper">Santee Cooper</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Seminole_Electric_Cooperative" title="Seminole Electric Cooperative">Seminole Electric Cooperative</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=South_Carolina_Electric_%26_Gas" title="South Carolina Electric & Gas" class="mw-redirect">South Carolina Electric & Gas</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Southern_Company" title="Southern Company">Southern Company</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Southern_Illinois_Power_Cooperative" title="Southern Illinois Power Cooperative">Southern Illinois Power Cooperative</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sunflower_Electric_Power_Corporation" title="Sunflower Electric Power Corporation">Sunflower Electric Power Corporation</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=TECO_Energy" title="TECO Energy">TECO Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tennessee_Valley_Authority" title="Tennessee Valley Authority">Tennessee Valley Authority</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=TransAlta" title="TransAlta">TransAlta</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=We_Energies" title="We Energies" class="mw-redirect">We Energies</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wolverine_Power_Cooperative" title="Wolverine Power Cooperative">Wolverine Power Cooperative</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Xcel_Energy" title="Xcel Energy">Xcel Energy</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>Resources</h2>

The American Coal Ash Association

15200 E. Girard Ave., Ste. 3050,

Aurora, CO 80014-3955

Phone: 720-870-7897

Fax: 720-870-7889

Email: info@acaa-usa.org

Website: <a href="http://www.acaa-usa.org/" class="external free" title="http://www.acaa-usa.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.acaa-usa.org/</a>

<h3>References</h3>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#cite_ref-0" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/9dcyzlqzeo1ais9/coal%20ash%20report_lores.pdf" class="external text" title="http://www.mediafire.com/file/9dcyzlqzeo1ais9/coal%20ash%20report_lores.pdf" rel="nofollow">Coal-Fired Utilities to American Public: Kiss my Ash</a> DeSmogBlog.com & PolluterWatch, October 27, 2010.</li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Coal_Ash_Association#cite_ref-1" title="">↑</a> <a href="http://www.uswag.org/C2P2facts508.pdf" class="external text" title="http://www.uswag.org/C2P2facts508.pdf" rel="nofollow">"Coal Combustion Products Partnership"</a> EPA’s Resource Conservation Challenge, accessed March 2011.</li>

</ol>

</div>

<h3>Related SourceWatch articles</h3>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_groups" title="Front groups">Front groups</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_slurry_impoundment" title="Coal slurry impoundment">Coal slurry impoundment</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=TVA_Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_ash_spill" title="TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill">TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=TVA_Widows_Creek_coal_waste_spill" title="TVA Widows Creek coal waste spill">TVA Widows Creek coal waste spill</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Massey_Energy" title="Massey Energy">Massey Energy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federal_coal_subsidies" title="Federal coal subsidies">Federal coal subsidies</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Estimating_U.S._Government_Subsidies_to_Energy_Sources_2002-2008" title="Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources 2002-2008">Estimating U.S. Government Subsidies to Energy Sources 2002-2008</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=State_coal_subsidies" title="State coal subsidies">State coal subsidies</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Health_effects_of_coal" title="Health effects of coal">Health effects of coal</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mercury_and_coal" title="Mercury and coal">Mercury and coal</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heavy_metals_and_coal" title="Heavy metals and coal">Heavy metals and coal</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sulfur_dioxide_and_coal" title="Sulfur dioxide and coal">Sulfur dioxide and coal</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Environmental_impacts_of_coal" title="Environmental impacts of coal">Environmental impacts of coal</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Air_pollution_from_coal-fired_power_plants" title="Air pollution from coal-fired power plants">Air pollution from coal-fired power plants</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_sludge" title="Coal sludge">Coal sludge</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=United_States_and_coal" title="United States and coal">United States and coal</a></li>

</ul>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Coal_Issues" title="Category:Coal Issues">Coal Issues</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Energy" title="Category:Energy">Energy</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Environment" title="Category:Environment">Environment</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Front_groups" title="Category:Front groups">Front groups</a> | <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Public_relations_case_studies" title="Category:Public relations case studies">Public relations case studies</a></div>

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Earthjustice, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and several other groups want the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize coal ash standards the agency proposed after a massive and expensive 2008 spill.

"It is well past time the EPA acts on promises made years ago to protect the nation from coal ash contamination and life-threatening coal ash ponds," Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans said in a statement. The groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The EPA proposed regulating coal ash, or byproducts of coal combustion in power plants, in 2010, after a spill at a storage site at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant.

The 2008 accident caused a flood of sludge for which cleanup was estimated to cost more than $1 billion.

Environmental groups way coal ash disposal can lead to groundwater contamination from improperly built storage ponds and landfills. The EPA has said contaminants such as mercury, arsenic and cadmium in coal ash could cause cancer if they get into the water supply.

Earthjustice last week released data obtained from the EPA that shows previously unknown instances of contaminated groundwater at 29 U.S. power plants. The report shows arsenic, lead and other pollutants in water near the coal-fired plants.

"When plants are monitoring they're generally, much more often than not, finding the contamination," Evans said. "Which then, of course, begs the question of, why aren't there federal protections to stop this contamination?"

The EPA did not respond to requests for comment.

The Obama administration is going into a tough election year fighting accusations that its regulations will stifle business in a struggling economy. Republicans in Congress have attacked the EPA in particular, accusing it of a war on coal-fired power plants due to new emissions rules.

The agency proposed two versions of the coal ash rules. One would be tougher on existing facilities; both versions would require liners and groundwater monitoring at new storage sites.

The final rules are expected sometime this summer, but Evans said the EPA needs to set a hard deadline to finish.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the proposed changes. Some say regulating coal ash would stifle industries that use recycled waste. In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in 2010, 35 senators argued the proposal would place unfair burdens on utilities and could cost jobs.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in October that would hand the responsibility for regulating coal ash disposal to the states. A bipartisan group of senators backed the bill, but it has not gained much attention since. (Reporting By Emily Stephenson; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Am COAL ASH Assoc (ACAA)

Attachments