The Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC), Citizens Coal Council (CCC) and a host of other environmental and public health groups today expressed their grave disappointment with the decision of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), apparently under the direction of the White House, to refuse to assume federal oversight over poisonous sludge and ash from coal and oil-fired power plants. This action came as a federal court denied the Agency’s third request for an extension to make its decision, and follows on the heels of a political pressure campaign directed at the Senate and the House to carry the polluting industries’ message to the White House. EPA has indicated that the Agency would re-evaluate today’s decision and assume its protective role when new scientific information, such as the National Academy of Sciences mercury study due in June, proves the harm of these wastes.
The Bevill Amendment, passed by Congress in 1980, required the EPA to present a determination to Congress on the correct disposal of toxic wastes from power plants. After the EPA repeatedly refused to act, a citizens’ lawsuit resulted in a court order requiring action. In 1999, the EPA filed a preliminary report, based only on utility industry sources, which indicated that it would not take regulatory responsibility for the waste. Since that initial indication, citizens, public health and environmental groups provided EPA with significant additional scientific documentation of damage due to coal combustion waste. Shortly thereafter, EPA Administrator Carol Browner, responding to a direct question while testifying before Congress on budget issues, said that the EPA would soon reverse its position and issue a determination to regulate coal combustion waste as hazardous. It was at that point that the utility industry began its lobbying and political campaign in Congress and the Clinton-Gore administration. In their campaign, the industry asserted many dire predictions of damage to their industry, yet failed to address any of the scientific data proving the danger of power plant waste to humans, animals and ground water.
From the Daily Regulatory Reporter, Originally Reported by PRNewswire
