About the Contaminated Sites & Spills

* The 208 known cases of documented water contamination are likely to be only a small percentage of the coal ash-contaminated sites in the United States (last updated: February 2014). Most coal ash landfills and ponds do not conduct monitoring, so the majority of water contamination goes undetected.

According to U.S. EPA, there are over 1,000 operating coal ash landfills and ponds and many hundreds of "retired" coal ash disposal sites.

Contamination of groundwater, wetlands, creeks, or rivers could easily have been prevented with sensible safeguards such as phasing out leak-prone ash ponds and requiring the use of synthetic liners and leachate collection systems. Yet, ash and other coal combustion wastes are not subject to federal regulations that require these simple safeguards.

View contaminated sites & spills on a larger map.

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