A True Halloween Scare: EPA Data Reveals More Dangerous Coal Ash Ponds

Inspections reveal threefold increase in "significant-hazard rated" ponds
November 1, 2011
Washington, D.C. —

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest release of data concerning coal ash ponds reveals a threefold increase in the number of significant-hazard rated coal ash ponds. This nightmare scenario comes as legislation passed by the House of Representatives and introduced in the Senate proposes to completely castrate the EPA's ability to set federally enforceable safeguards for proper coal ash disposal.
TVA coal ash spill in 2008. (TVA)
Cleanup of the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill
in December 2008. (TVA)

"Coal ash ponds are threatening hundreds of communities and their drinking water supplies, but the current approach in Congress is to ignore the problem and hope it goes away," said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans.

The EPA is rating coal ash ponds according to a National Inventory of Dams (NID) criteria that categorizes the ponds by the damage that would occur if the pond collapses. Coal ash ponds are usually earthen structures holding back millions of tons of toxic coal ash and water. This month, the EPA recently released a new set of data that reveals 181 "significant" hazard dams in 18 states. This is more than three times the 60 significant-hazard ponds listed in the original database released in 2009. In addition to the increase in the number of significant hazard-rated ponds, eight of the previously unrated coal ash ponds were found to be high hazard ponds in information released by the EPA earlier this year. Because of the switch in ratings after the EPA inspections, the total number of high hazard ponds has stayed roughly the same at a total of 47 ponds nationwide.

http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2011/a-true-halloween-scare-epa-data-reveals-more-dangerous-coal-ash-ponds

I have been told I have a very dry sense of humor. I just think I'm abnormally funny. Thanks for injecting some humor in a very scary and fatal subject.

But the fact remains that the EPA has upgraded the number of serious-risk coal ash dumping grounds to triple the former number. We've got to end the use of coal first, before stopping oil or natural gas. It's (coal is) the number one environmental criminal on the planet.