EPA Releases More Electric Utility Plans for Coal Ash Impoundments

摘要

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing action plans developed by 20 electric utility facilities with 70 coal ash impoundments, describing the measures the facilities are taking to make their impoundments safer. The action plans are a response to the EPA's final assessment reports on the structural integrity of these impoundments that the agency made public last May. Coal ash was brought prominently to national attention in 2008 when an impoundment holding disposed coal ash waste generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority failed, creating a massive spill in Kingston, Tenn., that released more than 5 million cubic yards of coal ash to the surrounding area and is regarded as one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in history. Shortiy afterward, the EPA began overseeing the cleanup, as well as investigating the structural integrity of impoundments where coal ash waste is stored.