Amid Coal Ash Rule Challenge, Enviros Worry About Long-Term Monitoring

"With utility industry groups pressuring the EPA to change regulations on coal ash facility maintenance and cleanup, environmental activists in the Southeast worry that companies won’t be required to take responsibility for long-term monitoring of coal ash ponds and landfills.

The Coal Combustion Residuals Rule put basic requirements in place for maintenance, cleanup, and groundwater monitoring, but long-term monitoring rules vary depending on what the ash is stored in.

Now, the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG), which represents electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, and major industry associations, is petitioning the EPA for a stay of the 2015 rule, calling it a 'one size fits all approach' that is 'ill-conceived and burdensome.'

Environmental groups worry that without the federal rule in place, decisions on how to monitor coal ash would be open to interpretation by companies that have been reluctant to clean up sites, since it could be up to states to decide how to create or enforce regulations."

Lyndsey Gilpin reports for Southeast Energy News June 13, 2017.