Waterkeeper Alliance Comments on U.S. Coal Ash Waste

Waterkeeper Alliance would like to thank everyone who responded to our call to submit public comments on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed coal ash residuals rule (Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640). Your actions have gone a long way toward convincing Administrator Lisa Jackson and others at EPA that coal ash waste is hazardous and should be treated that way.

While you were commenting via e-mail, fax and letter using the tools we provided at waterkeeper.org and thedirtylie.org, we were preparing our own coal ash statement for submission and consideration. That statement, linked below for your review, was created and signed by 48 Waterkeepers from locations throughout the Unites States.

Waterkeeper Alliance's firm stance on coal-based energy production and coal ash waste is laid out early in the document and informs each point in the argument that follows:

"...Waterkeeper [Alliance] and its member organizations located throughout the United States are deeply concerned with our continuing and misguided reliance on inherently filthy and polluting coal as our primary source of energy. From the destructive extraction and transportation of coal to the burning of it in our antiquated coal-fired power plants, the detrimental impacts of coal use on our human body and ecological systems is well-documented and irrefutable. The dumping of coal ash and the largely unregulated impoundment and storage of this undeniably hazardous waste is the last phase in a cradle-to-the-grave path of devastation caused by our continuing addiction to coal. Improperly disposed of and stored coal ash wastes are having significant impacts on local drinking and surface water supplies and, ultimately, on our communities."

Click here to read our entire coal ash statement to EPA.

We hope you will read through our document and let us know what you think. Please send your comments and questions to info1@waterkeeper.org.