Proposed safeguards regulating how coal ash is disposed in Georgia will likely be up for final approval in October, as the state's top environmental agency continues to shape rules designed to be more stringent than federal rules for coal ash established last year.
Jeff Cown, who runs the land protection branch of the state’s Environmental Protection Division, made a presentation Tuesday to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources board updating members on plans to protect Georgia’s air and water from coal ash pollution.
Coal ash, or coal combustion residuals, is a byproduct of burning coal for electricity. Utilities typically store the ash in waste ponds or landfills or, if handled properly, the ash can be recycled into concrete, wallboard or roads.
Environmentalists and a number of communities in Georgia had urged the state to update its rules over the disposal and storage of coal ash. It’s a battle playing out nationwide as more research is done about the ash’s potential dangers, which include mercury, cadmium and arsenic. The toxic metals in the ash can also leach into ground and surface water and, as dust, rise into the air and lungs.
More stringent state and federal disposal rules, as well as verified leaks from ash ponds and landfills across the country, have prodded utility companies and others into action.
Georgia Power, which generated 2.4 million tons of coal ash last year, announced earlier this month that it would speed up closure of its 29 ash ponds, including those in metro Atlanta. A representative for the company spoke in favor of the proposed rules Tuesday, saying that Georgia Power anticipated they would be implemented.
State officials have so far received more than 100 comments from people, with expectations of holding more public hearings later this summer. A number of environmental groups are encouraging the state to write even stronger protections into the plan, including assurances about how to account for ash already in the ground and to protect against any loopholes for private industry.
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