Environmentalists Sue EPA Over Regulation of “Inactive” Coal Ash Landfills

Several environmental organizations have sued the U.S. EPA in an attempt to force the agency to revise its coal ash rules to include inactive, coal ash landfills. Currently inactive, coal ash landfills are exempt from the coal combustion residuals (“CCR”) rule requirements which require monitoring and closure of CCR landfills that accept ash after October 19, 2016, existing surface impoundments, and to a limited degree, inactive CCR surface impoundments. Plaintiffs in the case allege that approximately half of the country’s CCR waste is contained in exempt landfills. The case, State-wide Organizing for Community Empowerment, et al. v. EPA, filed August 25, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that EPA has failed to review and revisit the CCR rule as required under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and that the rule does not allow the exemption for older, inactive landfills. For more information, please contact a member of SGR’s Environmental Group.

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