Brian Willis: 202.675.2386, Brian.Willis@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yesterday, Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, delayed deadlines for crucial clean water protections against coal sludge being dumped into America’s waterways by two years - putting the health of thousands of communities living near coal-fired power plants at risk. These clean water protections would have kept dangerous heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury, and boron from being dumped into local waterways and helped prevent serious health problems caused by contaminated drinking water - including birth defects, cancer, and stunted mental development in young children.
The EPA spent seven years researching water quality near coal plants, meeting with doctors and medical scientists on the health risks to letting the status quo (which has lasted for 35 years) continue, and meticulously investigating affordable treatment systems to keep toxins from coal plants out of America’s drinking water. Based on this research and the work of the agency’s apolitical career staffers, the Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG) were introduced to applause in 2015 from public health advocates, environmentalists, and major water utilities.
Despite the seven years of hard work and positive reception from public health professionals across the country, it took Pruitt only seven months to delay the deadlines for ELG water protections - even after coal plant owners were already preparing to comply with the new standards. Pruitt provided no valid legal justification for the delay, which is widely seen as another illegal capitulation to coal plant owners intent on avoiding accountability to basic science and public health.
In response, Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, released the following statement:
“It took seven years of hard work from EPA career staffers and doctors on the behalf of thousands of communities to make sure that their water was safe, and it took Scott Pruitt seven months to betray them to coal industry billionaires.
“Keeping industrial sludge and foul wastewater from coal plants out of our drinking water supplies shouldn’t be something that should be up for debate, but Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt just made it one - solidifying their current role as callous henchmen for billionaire fossil fuel executives with no regard for working families.
“Pruitt’s decision is so unconscionable from a public health - and common sense - perspective, that he couldn’t even name a valid legal reason for the delay. It seems every time he can’t go any lower or capitulate more to the fossil fuel industry, he does. We will take immediate action on this illegal decision and do everything we can to inform the public of exactly what Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt are doing to their water.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.