Electric utilities are bracing for the first federal rules on how they handle the millions of tons of waste ash produced by coal-fired power plants.

The regulations, due Friday, are aimed at coal ash stored as a slurry in about 700 earthen pits around the country. The Environmental Protection Agency agreed to issue the rules as part of a legal settlement after a 2008 accident in Harriman, Tenn., where a dam failed and 5.4 million cubic yards of wet ash covered about 300 acres and flowed into two rivers.

...