Groups push EPA to crack down on Georgia coal ash

By Miranda Willson | 07/18/2024 01:28 PM EDT

The environmental organizations say that the state has not been complying with federal requirements.

 In this Feb. 5, 2014 file photo, Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, shows her hand covered with wet coal ash from the Dan River swirling in the background, in Danville, Va.

Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, shows her hand covered with wet coal ash from the Dan River swirling in the background. Environmental groups say Georgia is not implementing federal coal ash rules. Gerry Broome/AP

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.

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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.

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