Regulation of coal ash could be delayed

WASHINGTON -- An Obama administration pledge to regulate potentially toxic ash from coal-fired power plants may be delayed or scrapped altogether if the Environmental Protection Agency bases its cost- benefit analysis on flawed data, a group of environmental groups said Wednesday.

The environmentalists' analysis comes a little more than two years after an earthen coal ash impoundment owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority broke open, polluting a river and spewing 1 billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge over an area near Kingston, Tenn.

Soon after, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promised to look into regulation of coal combustion ash. But that urgency has given way to a delay without a resolution in sight, despite the EPA's assessments about the risks that the open pits holding the coal ash pose to public health and safety.

In its fall 2010 regulatory agenda, the agency does not set a deadline for a final rule on coal ash.

The hold-up, environmentalists and government watchdog groups said, stems from pressure exerted by industry and the White House's Office of Management and Budget for the EPA to adopt a rule that would give substantial weight to the costs, as well as the benefits of new regulations.

After taking a drubbing during the midterm elections thanks in part to campaigns financed by business groups, the Obama administration appears to be mending fences with various industries, an effort that could lead to loose regulation of pollutants, environmentalists said.

In the new report, analysts for the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Stockholm Environment Institute at Tufts University concluded that what they said were faulty data could lead the EPA to issue less-stringent rules for coal ash.

"We want EPA to make a decision, and we want a right decision," said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and former head of EPA's Office of Civil Enforcement. "If we don't have federal regulations and federal enforceable standards that restrict what you can do at disposal sites, the problem is just going to get worse."

In an e-mailed statement, the EPA said it would take into account the review's findings about its cost-benefit analysis.

The ash, which is residue left from burning coal, is laced with lead, arsenic, cadmium and other potentially toxic substances.