On January 21, Attorney General Josh Shapiro joined Attorneys General from three other states to oppose the rollback of EPA regulations on the disposal of ash from coal-fired power plants.
The comments submitted to EPA said the proposed rollbacks and deadline extensions will harm their states in several ways.
“Groundwater and surface waters within our respective borders are interconnected to upstream out-of-state waters, and thus vulnerable to pollution discharged outside our boundaries.
“Leaking and overflowing coal ash impoundments have contaminated groundwater and surface waters alike.
“Effluent limitation guidelines, for their part, are meant to protect the quality of surface waters, including those that flow downstream into our states. Our states thus rely on federal regulation to ensure a stable nationwide regulatory floor protecting against pollution crossing our borders.
“Further, state law may pose impediments to regulating more stringently than EPA, so that the agency’s actions, in practical terms, serve not just as a regulatory floor but also as a regulatory ceiling.”
“The Coal Ash Proposal ignores recent risk data, flouts the requirements of RCRA and the D.C. Circuit’s USWAG decision, and arbitrarily prolongs the life of unlined coal ash impoundments.
“The ELG Proposal, for its part, arbitrarily subsidizes particular subcategories of coal-fired power plants by allowing them to exempt themselves from more stringent effluent limitations in a manner ripe for abuse.”
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[Posted: January 22, 2020] PA Environment Digest
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