Coal Ash

A glaring loophole already had allowed at least a half-billion tons of the waste to go unregulated. Now the agency says many of the facilities that are subject to the rules do not comply.

The action was prompted by a lawsuit seeking to close a glaring loophole that had left many of the nation’s mountains of coal ash without federal regulations, but the agency would still exempt some disposal sites.

They want the EPA to address a federal loophole they say leaves nearly a billion tons of coal ash unregulated.

Environmental groups that fought for the 2015 coal ash regulations were pleased to see the Biden administration begin to enforce them and expected to get involved in the lawsuit.

It’s been almost a year since a barge transporting coal ash from Puerto Rico to a landfill in Folkston, Georgia, spilled more than 5,000 tons of the toxic industrial byproduct into the ocean off Atlantic Beach.

Tucked among scattered pine and cypress trees near Orlando, Florida, a 175-foot-tall mountain of coal ash looms as a stark representation of this booming region's reliance on fossil fuels.

The barge was carrying coal ash, a potentially hazardous material produced when coal is burned for energy. It ran aground in late March.

The Barge Bridgeport remains grounded about a mile south of the St. Johns River, with some 8,000 tons of coal ash unaccounted for.

North Carolina regulators have cited five more Duke Energy power plants for lacking required storm water permits after a massive spill at one of the…