Following the 2008 coal ash spill at the TVA Kingston facility, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now evaluating options for revising federal regulations for coal combustion byproducts ("CCBs"), including potentially regulating CCBs as hazardous waste.
EPA has sent the proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The proposal has generated a significant amount of opposition from businesses and state governments concerned about the adverse effects and high costs that would result from designating CCBs hazardous. OMB has extended the normal review period by an additional 30 days.
Opponents to this measure now include more than two dozen U.S. Senators who have signed on to two letters sent by Senators Bayh (D-IN), Conrad (D-ND) and Brownback (R-KS) to EPA Administrator Jackson.
The proposed action could jeopardize the current practice of recycling CCBs for beneficial reuse. Currently, more than 42 percent of CCBs are reused to produce roofing granules, blasting abrasives, and as structural fill. CCBs can serve as a replacement for Portland cement in concrete. Several co-ops, including Great River Energy in Minn., have incorporated fly ash into the construction of new co-op buildings.
The economic consequences of a hazardous waste designation to utilities and ultimately the consumer would be severe. Electric cooperatives are joining with other stakeholders to oppose this proposal, including the following:
- National Governors Association
- National Conference of State Legislatures
- U.S. Conference of Mayors
- Unions for Jobs and the Environment
- Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials
- Tribal Governments
- 27 state environmental protection agencies, state DOTs and state Public Utility Commissions.
NRECA believes that EPA’s proposal would impose crippling economic burdens on our operations at a time when we can least afford it. Studies provided to OMB demonstrate that not only would the regulation of CCBs as a hazardous waste cost the power industry approximately $20 billion annually or more, such regulation would result in the closure of power plants, create power reliability concerns, and raise electricity rates for our customers.
The states also have warned that regulating CCBs as a hazardous waste would in one fell swoop add an additional 130 million tons of hazardous waste annually to the nation's hazardous waste system; currently, 2 million tons of hazardous waste are disposed of annually. The nation’s disposal infrastructure cannot accommodate this, the states cannot afford it, and it is not necessary to protect human health and the environment.
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