WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the first-ever federal coal ash standards aimed at the 140 million tons of ash pollution produced annually by America’s coal plants. Coal ash, the toxic by-product created after coal is burned, contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and selenium and other health threatening substances. The public health hazards and environmental threats to nearby communities from unsafe coal ash storage have been documented for decades, including increased risk of cancer, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, birth defects, asthma, and other serious illnesses.

For years, environmental and public health organizations have called on the EPA and the Obama Administration to impose common-sense protections for retired and active coal ash sites that treat the disposal of this toxic waste stream with the same level of scrutiny as other dangerous substances.

In response to the protections, Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, issued the following statement:

“Before EPA’s announcement today, coal ash disposal was not subject to any federal oversight whatsoever, and governing state laws were usually weak or non-existent. For decades, coal ash has been dumped in the backyards of power plants across the nation, into open-air pits and precarious surface waste ponds along our nation’s waterways. Most of these sites lacked adequate safeguards and left nearby communities at risk of groundwater contamination, air pollution, or large-scale disasters like the massive coal ash spill in Tennessee in 2008 and, most recently, the Dan River spill in North Carolina.

“While EPA and the Obama Administration have taken a modest first step by introducing some protections on the disposal of coal ash, they do not go far enough to protect families from this toxic pollution. We welcome federal efforts on this issue, but Sierra Club has significant concerns about what has been omitted from these protections and how they will be enforced in states that have historically had poor track records on coal ash disposal.

“Some parts of what the EPA has handed down will provide useful tools for communities, like requiring groundwater monitoring and dust controls around coal ash sites and making that data available to the public, but we are disappointed that it allows utilities to continue disposing of coal ash in ponds and does not incorporate strong federal enforcement. Today’s announcement still leaves people to largely fend for themselves against powerful utility interests that have historically ignored public health in favor of delayed action.

“Moving forward, Sierra Club and our coalition partners will use every tool available to strengthen this EPA safeguard, pressure state governments to do more to help communities suffering from ash pollution, and work with local residents to stand up to the utilities responsible for poisoning their water and air with this toxic industrial waste. Today was a step forward, but it was a step too small when considering the level of action needed to truly help those Americans living near these coal ash sites.”