Insider Briefing: Coal’s Poisonous Legacy

The document details the systemic contamination of groundwater by coal ash at 91% of monitored U.S. coal plants, highlighting the toxicity of substances like arsenic and lead. It describes legal actions and community advocacy used to challenge the Trump administration's attempts to weaken the 2015 coal ash rule and discusses the implementation of the Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act (Senate Bill 9) in Illinois to ensure financial assurance and transparency in cleanups.

• A study by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice found that groundwater near 91% of U.S. coal-fired power plants with reported monitoring data contains unsafe levels of toxic pollutants, including arsenic, lead, and mercury.
• Coal ash contains a variety of hazardous substances, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium, and radium, which can cause cancer, kidney disease, reproductive harm, and nervous system damage, particularly in children.
• The 2015 Obama administration coal ash regulation was the first of its kind, but it is described as a 'self-implementing rule' where utilities are obligated to follow it, but states are not required to enforce it.
• In Illinois, the Coal Ash Pollution Prevention Act (Senate Bill 9) was developed to fill federal gaps by requiring financial assurance for site closure and cleanup, as well as ensuring transparency and public participation.
• The document identifies severe contamination at specific sites, such as Duke Energy’s Allen plant in North Carolina, where cobalt levels exceed safe limits by over 500 times, and the TVA Allen Fossil Plant in Tennessee, where arsenic is 350 times the safe level.
• The Trump administration is accused of attempting to gut the 2015 coal ash rule, with plans to propose five rules in July 2019 intended to weaken current protections.
• Safe disposal of coal ash can be achieved through recycling into concrete (specifically fly ash) or by using modern-engineered landfills that are lined, include leachate collection, and are situated high above the groundwater table.

APA

Coleman, D., Rehn, A., Cassel, J., & Evans, L. (2019). Insider Briefing: Coal’s Poisonous Legacy. Earthjustice. https://earthjustice.org/feature/insider-briefing-coals-poisonous-legacy

Chicago

Coleman, Daveon, Andrew Rehn, Jenny Cassel, and Lisa Evans. Insider Briefing: Coal’s Poisonous Legacy. Earthjustice, 2019. https://earthjustice.org/feature/insider-briefing-coals-poisonous-legacy.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Coleman |first1=Daveon |last2=Rehn |first2=Andrew |last3=Cassel |first3=Jenny |last4=Evans |first4=Lisa |title=Insider Briefing: Coal’s Poisonous Legacy |publisher=Earthjustice |date=6 June 2019 |url=https://earthjustice.org/feature/insider-briefing-coals-poisonous-legacy |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{coleman2019insider, author = {Coleman, Daveon and Rehn, Andrew and Cassel, Jenny and Evans, Lisa}, title = {{Insider Briefing: Coal’s Poisonous Legacy}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2019}, month = jun, url = {https://earthjustice.org/feature/insider-briefing-coals-poisonous-legacy}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }