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3 environmental groups to sue EPA over coal-ash ponds
Three environmental groups have put the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on notice that they intend to sue the agency, alleging it has failed to regulate water pollution from the nation's electric utilities, including discharges into rivers and lakes from hundreds of coal-ash ponds.
Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Integrity Project on Monday filed their notice of intent to sue the EPA–the first step in a federal lawsuit–alleging that EPA officials should have tightened their rules on power plant water pollution as far back as 1982.
At issue are the heavy metals and other toxic pollutants found in effluent from ponds that store electric utilities' combustion wastes, such as ash, as well as scrubber sludge wastewater, and wastewater produced during the cleaning of cooling towers, said Jen Peterson, an attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project.
"Toxic discharges from power plants can threaten the health of local communities, contaminate ground and surface waters, and destroy aquatic life," said the Environmental Integrity Project executive director Eric Schaeffer, a former high-ranking EPA enforcement official. "EPA needs to stop kicking the can down the road and set a date for regulation."