Report faults state coal ash regulation

A new report entitled from Earth Justice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment calls attention to inadequate state laws to protect against contamination from coal ash landfills and detention ponds. The report is entitled State of Failure: Thirty-seven coal ash regulatory programs that place our air, water and health in danger.

The report notes that coal ash is the second largest form of waste produced in the United States and it looks at the regulations in 37 states, which covers 98 percent of all the coal ash produced nationally.

Our review reveals that most states do not require all coal ash landfills and ponds to employ the most basic safeguards required at household trash landfills, such as composite liners, groundwater monitoring, leachate collection systems, dust controls and financial assurance; nor do states require that coal ash ponds be operated to avoid catastrophic collapse. In addition, most states allow the placement of toxic coal ash in water tables and the siting of ponds and landfills in wetlands, unstable areas and floodplains. When measured against basic safeguards that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified as essential to protect health and the environment, state regulatory programs fail miserably to guarantee safety from contamination and catastrophe.

Michigan gets mixed reviews. The state is faulted for failing to require groundwater monitoring at new or existing landfills or detention ponds and for not requiring composite liners for either type of facility. And Michigan does prohibit coal ash landfills from being built in the water table, but does not do the same for coal ash detention ponds. At the same time, the state is credited with requiring financial assurance for both ponds and landfills.