Sierra Club Statement on Rollback of Protections Against Coal Ash

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, former coal lobbyist and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler finalized another rollback of clean water protections, which will allow utilities to keep dumping enormous quantities of toxic coal ash into unlined, leaking, and structurally unsound coal ash ponds -- putting tens of thousands of families at risk. With the goal of allowing coal plant owners to skirt their moral and financial responsibility to vulnerable residents, particularly pregnant women and young children, the rollback will also threaten ponds located in the groundwater, floodplains, and unstable areas. 

The finalized proposal, known formally as the “Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals Part B,” will allow many unlined coal ash ponds to operate indefinitely and allow huge volumes of coal ash to be dumped in hundreds of dangerous ponds that were required to close by the 2015 rule. 

In response, Dalal Aboulhosn, Deputy Legislative Director at the Sierra Club, released the following statement: 

“Andrew Wheeler’s time at the EPA has been a nonstop threat to our health and communities, and this rollback of commonsense safeguards against toxic, dangerous coal ash further proves it. Coal ash already contaminates tens of thousands of waterways and groundwater supplies across our country, and especially threatens the lives and well-being of pregnant mothers and young children with developmental disorders and premature death. Now, Wheeler is trying to make it harder for the EPA to do anything about it. 

“We wish he was as useful to the public as he is to his former employers in the coal industry, but based on his track record, that isn’t going to happen. We will fight this rollback and use every resource we have to protect our health and our communities from this insidiously toxic substance, with his help, or without it.”