Call for Rulemaking to Stop Pollution from Legacy Coal Ash Ponds and Inactive Landfills

A coalition of 121 public interest groups and tribal communities is calling on the EPA to strengthen the Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule. They argue that current exemptions for 'legacy ponds' (surface impoundments at plants retired before October 19, 2015) and 'inactive landfills' (those that stopped receiving waste by that date) leave nearly a billion tons of toxic waste unregulated. The petitioners claim the EPA is in violation of a 2018 D.C. Court of Appeals order and its own statutory duties under RCRA to review regulations every three years. The document highlights specific contamination sites in Indiana, Tennessee, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Illinois, emphasizing that these pollutants disproportionately affect low-income and BIPOC communities.

• The current Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule contains loopholes that exempt more than 200 'legacy ponds' (surface impoundments at plants that stopped generating electricity before October 19, 2015) and at least 285 inactive landfills from regulatory safeguards.
• The EPA is allegedly in violation of a 2018 D.C. Court of Appeals order requiring the agency to establish safeguards for the closure and cleanup of abandoned toxic ash ponds at retired power plants.
• The EPA has failed to meet its statutory duty under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to review and potentially revise regulations every three years, specifically regarding the exemption of inactive landfills.
• Data indicates that 91 percent of regulated coal ash dumps have caused severe groundwater pollution with hazardous chemicals, including arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead, lithium, and radium, exceeding federal drinking water standards.
• Specific examples of unregulated pollution include a two-million-ton coal ash fill at NIPSCO’s Michigan City Generating Station in Indiana leaking into Lake Michigan, and an unlined landfill at TVA’s Bull Run Fossil Plant in Tennessee contaminating groundwater with arsenic and boron.
• In Puerto Rico, over 2 million tons of coal ash were used for roads and embankments, exposing environmental justice communities, schools, and hospitals to toxins via wind and water.
• Coal ash pollution is identified as an environmental justice issue because dumps are predominantly located in low-income or BIPOC communities with higher rates of asthma and cancer and limited healthcare access.

APA

Earthjustice (2022). Call for Rulemaking to Stop Pollution from Legacy Coal Ash Ponds and Inactive Landfills. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/call_for_rulemaking_to_stop_pollution_from_legacy_coal_ash_ponds_and_inactive_landfills.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. Call for Rulemaking to Stop Pollution from Legacy Coal Ash Ponds and Inactive Landfills. 2022. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/call_for_rulemaking_to_stop_pollution_from_legacy_coal_ash_ponds_and_inactive_landfills.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Earthjustice |title=Call for Rulemaking to Stop Pollution from Legacy Coal Ash Ponds and Inactive Landfills |date=1 August 2022 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/call_for_rulemaking_to_stop_pollution_from_legacy_coal_ash_ponds_and_inactive_landfills.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{earthjustice2022call, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{Call for Rulemaking to Stop Pollution from Legacy Coal Ash Ponds and Inactive Landfills}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2022}, month = aug, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/call_for_rulemaking_to_stop_pollution_from_legacy_coal_ash_ponds_and_inactive_landfills.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }