Coal Ash Industry Sees Massive Job Losses If EPA Rules Proceed

An industry-funded report released late Wednesday suggests that federal regulation of coal combustion residuals, or coal ash, currently being considered by the Environmental Protection Agency would result in as many as 316,000 lost jobs and as much as $110 billion in lost economic activity over a 20-year period.

But environmental groups were quick to label the report as a cynical and misleading ploy timed to coincide with markup of legislation aimed at blocking the EPA from regulating coal ash -- which contains a variety of chemicals like arsenic, selenium, lead and mercury -- as hazardous waste.

Coal ash disposal is currently unregulated at the federal level, but the EPA is weighing two options for bringing the post-combustion leftovers from power plants under the purview of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Under the first option, coal ash -- which can include a wide range of waste materials like fly ash, bottom ash and others -- would be treated as a "special waste" under Subtitle C of that legislation, which governs hazardous wastes. A second option would deal with the material under Subtitle D of the statute, which governs non-hazardous wastes. This option would simply set national guidelines, but leave it to states and the industry to implement them. The coal ash industry opposes both of these regulatory designations.

The United States produces more than 130 million tons of coal ash annually, according to the American Coal Ash Association, an industry group. Roughly 43 percent of that is used as an additive in concrete products, bricks, shingles and other materials. The rest is disposed of in loosely regulated holding ponds and landfills.

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Source: Huffington