Date: October 5, 2011
Source: News Room
State waste officials are gearing up to fight environmentalists' claims that the states are inadequately controlling coal ash waste. They hope to use EPA's "imminent" release of a data notice on coal ash to prove the viability of their own regulatory and enforcement programs and argue against defining coal ash as hazardous subject to direct regulation under EPA. In July, EPA sent for White House Office of Management & Budget review a notice of data availability (NODA) that will seek comment on new data related to the agency's controversial proposal for regulating coal combustion residuals from power plants.
The agency in July 2010 proposed to either regulate coal ash as hazardous waste under subtitle C of the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, or under less stringent solid waste rules under subtitle D. Industry fears that a hazardous waste rule would impose a "stigma" on coal ash and lead to a reduction in the beneficial reuse of the material in cement, gypsum and other products. States favor a subtitle D rulemaking that would allow them to continue taking the lead on regulating the disposal of coal waste.
Stephen Cobb, president of the Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO), gave a presentation at the September 26 annual meeting of the Environmental Council of the States' (ECOS) urging states to provide comments on the NODA that could counter claims from environmentalists that states are doing an inadequate job of controlling coal waste. Officials from both ECOS and ASTSWMO also said that they continue to support H.R. 2273, legislation that would bar EPA from regulating coal ash as hazardous under subtitle C.
Environmental groups have claimed that the states are failing to consistently require safeguards at coal ash disposal sites, and point to the massive Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill in 2008 as a reason for immediate action. Several groups have produced reports critical of the states including one by the Environmental Integrity Project entitled "Toxic Water Run Deep: Coal Ash Dumps Still Open for Business."
Cobb warned that allegations from environmentalists and others about weak coal ash controls and examples of example from coal ash spills could increase the likelihood that EPA's final risk analysis for its final coal ash rule could be based on "alleged, not proven, damage cases" and claims of deficiencies in state coal waste disposal rules. Cobb said publication of the NODA provides states an opportunity to "correct the record" in three ways: countering "inaccurate" claims about alleged damage sites, documenting state actions to address releases at the sites, and accurately describing states coal waste regulatory programs.
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