What Is The EPA Thinking or Is It?

You have likely heard about EPA's co-proposal of two regulations for coal combustion waste (CCW), one that would establish mandatory federally-enforced requirements for states to meet under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA, Subtitle C) and the other that would establish guidelines for states to follow if they choose to (under RCRA Subtitle D). It is crucially important that all who want acceptable safeguards for the management of CCW write EPA requesting that it adopt the C regulation. Furthermore we need an avalanche of comments demanding that loopholes in the C regulation such as that granted for minefilling be closed.

The utilities, mining operations, states and those in the federal government who want no federal enforcement, want EPA to select the D regulation. By defining facilities that fail to follow those guidelines as "open dumps" prohibited under RCRA, the D regulation would give citizens the right to enforce its provisions to prevent open dumps. However, relying on citizens to enforce an entire statute for a waste stream as large as CCW is a ridiculous approach that will leave every citizen for themself against the massive, well-funded energy industry instead of meeting the purpose of RCRA which is to ENFORCE regulations that PREVENT harm in the first place.

The proposed C rule will not regulate the placement of CCW in mines. We need thousands of letters demanding this loophole be closed. EPA is promising to work closely with the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) to develop this regulation under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). Even if minefills are not covered under the C regulation, its requirements that CCW be placed above the water table and in sites with composite liners and leachate collection will give us tremendous leverage in gaining those safeguards in an OSM regulation for minefilling. SMCRA regulations are supposed to ensure that other federal environmental laws such as RCRA and the Clean Water Act are not violated by coal mining operations. EPA's C regulation will also require "structural fills" which are similar to minefills to meet the same standards as a landfill, providing added basis for ending most minefills currently in operation.

So please: 1) recognize that without a C regulation from EPA, we will be very unlikely to ever gain adequate safeguards for minefills and other irresponsible CCW disposal practices; and 2) help us fight as hard as possible this summer for that C regulation with as few loopholes as possible.
 

Lisa Jackson, what is the EPA thinking by not regulating placement of CCW in mines? The state officials in Oklahoma are probably jumping for joy. They have not backed us since February 2009 and now without the EPA’s help they can continue to ignore the situation.

In an NewsOK article a representative of the ODEQ stated: The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is evaluating EPA’s latest proposals. It’s unlikely that either of the proposed EPA rules would apply to the site. I think it’s important for those folks (in Bokoshe) to understand that just pushing for (the special waste rule) isn’t going to make any difference for that particular site.” said Scott Thompson, Land Protection Division director for the agency. (Read the entire article by Michael Baker on The Press page: EPA has two proposals to deal with coal ash disposal.)

The picture below shows what the state of Oklahoma considers minefilling. A fifty-five foot mountain of fly ash cover 20 acres and holding back a slurry pond is not filling a mine. It is not real mine reclamation either. Although the state of Oklahoma says it is a beneficial use of fly ash when using it as minefilling.

Exactly what is the beneficial use here? Let’s see, the company Making Money Having Fun who runs the fly ash disposal site make money while being allowed to built the mountain and slurry pond. They have been sited for the second time for violating the federal Clean Water Act by contaminating the waters of US. I am not sure what the benefit of that would be. I am quite sure the mine did not start fifty foot in the air and then Making Money Having Fun worked their way down filling the mine from above. Maybe it benefits the state of Oklahoma to allow our contamination to flow through our waterways to the Arkansas River, into the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. Hey, some of the contamination is leaving our state maybe that is the justification.

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