Success: EPA Corks Coal Industry’s Toxic Waste-Water

Target: Michael Regan, Administrator of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Goal: Support stronger restrictions and limits on coal waste-water disposal.

One of the last major damaging anti-environmental policies torpedoed through by the Trump administration enabled coal plants to dump untold amounts of toxic waste-water onto public lands and into waterways. This ForceChange petition brought attention to the polluting practice utilized by various industries, and this petition spoke to the real-world impact on disadvantaged communities. With new leadership at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), responsibility and sanity have finally been restored.

An administrative directive in August of 2020 lifted much of the restrictions and guidelines that determined how coal-fired power plants did waste-water disposal. This waste accumulated by coal plants is especially poisonous to the environment and to any living beings coming into contact with it. The water brims with toxic substances like arsenic, mercury, and lead. It may cause deadly ailments like cancer. The lifting of limitations allowed cheap and inefficient disposal methods to become standard operating procedure. After a review based on actual science, the EPA has reversed the rollbacks and now holds these polluting plants to a much higher standard.

Sign the petition below to applaud the end of another attack by one of the most environmentally unfriendly administrations in history.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Administrator Regan,

In a recent statement you vowed “to strengthen water quality protections and further reduce power plant pollution that can contain toxic metals such as mercury, arsenic, and selenium.” Thank you for taking the first major step in this commitment by putting coal plants and their damaging disposal methods back in check.  More so, thank you for following the science and technological advances.

At last, the EPA is fulfilling rather than battling against its own mission.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: Pixabay


2 Comments

  1. Coal has poisoned the earth for eons. It’s time it stopped. Glad you corked it! The ruin it leaves in its wake is appalling. Coal must be stopped in favor of new energy. I loved West Virginia Appalachian Mountains but coal was there for decades and now the mountains are gone. All is ruined. Flat topped. Did coal pay anything to rebuild or replace? No, but you knew that already. Now China must be informed of the hazards of coal but I think they are aware by now. Glad it’s going to be a thing of the past. Thank you for taking this first step and hopefully one day soon we will see and end to coal forever.

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