Environmental groups are urging EPA to revoke Georgia’s coal ash program, citing “blatant violations” of federal standards to protect groundwater and human health.
Since 2015, EPA has required electric utilities and power producers nationwide to monitor and close coal ash dump sites and limit contamination of water supplies. This year, the Biden administration expanded the rules to include hundreds of ash facilities that were previously exempt.
Environmental groups, as well as Biden’s EPA, maintain that companies cannot leave coal ash submerged in groundwater without a protective lining to prevent the ash from leaking dangerous heavy metals. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit largely upheld the administration’s position in a ruling this year.
But in Georgia, the state’s Environmental Protection Division has allowed utility Georgia Power to close a 1.1-million-ton ash pond “submerged up to ten feet in groundwater,” according to the petition. It was sent Thursday to EPA by the Southern Environmental Law Center, Earthjustice, Sierra Club and several regional environmental groups.