Ash Pond Newsletter: November 2021

The following is a collection of ash pond news from November 2021. Our intent is to provide you with important news pieces to help inform your business decisions and keep you up to date about the coal and ash pond industry.

This downloadable newsletter provides resources and explanations of ash pond news concerning a number of topics, including:

• Workers and their families involved in the 2008 Kingston coal ash spill at Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman have filed a federal lawsuit arguing that at least 47 disaster relief workers have died, and 400 others have been sickened from the coal ash exposure.
• A new federal wastewater rule will require power plants to clean coal ash and toxic heavy metals from plant wastewater before it is dumped into streams and rivers.
• Xcel’s “Comanche 3” coal-fired power plant in Pueblo, Colorado is the state’s largest source of carbon dioxide. Xcel wants to maintain operation of the plant, at a reduced level, until the end of 2039 to reach their statutory requirement to reduce emissions 80% over 2005 levels by 2030.
• ProPublica has analyzed five years of modeled EPA data to identify air pollution hot spots around the United States. ProPublica’s analysis determined that there are approximately 250,000 people living in over 1,000 toxic hot spots that may be exposed to levels of excess cancer risks according to EPA standards.