In a move that did not yet directly affect any coal ash facilities in Oklahoma due to coal-fired power plants, the Biden administration took what was considered a first significant move this week in addressing widespread problems with the toxic ash from others around the nation.
The administration plans action on 9 of 57 applications by utilities for extensions of time to shut down the coal ash operations. The operations are considered to be environmental health legacies because the fly ash often contains contaminants such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic and often pollute groundwater.
The Trump administration allowed the utilities to request extensions from being required to stop receiving waste and begin closing by April 2021 reported Inside Climate News.
In 2015, the EPA under the Obama administration put forth the first national rules on coal ash, which required most of the nation’s approximately 500 unlined coal ash surface impoundments to stop receiving waste and begin closing by April 2021.
One such site is near Bokoshe, Oklahoma, one of an estimated 1,400 sites nationwide. It has long been a source of complaints from residents who believe the coal-ash pile is the source of serious health problems.
The Bokoshe site is filled with coal ash from the Shady Point Power Plant in neighboring Panama. Hundreds of thousands of tons a year were hauled in years past to be dumped into old strip mines.