Multiple federal regulations are now in the pipeline and involve mercury, coal ash and greenhouse gases.
Moreover, because coal ash is now recycled, it reduces the effects on climate change.
The coal ash sector, however, says that no mater what, the industry will be tainted.
Environmental groups said the EPA should have ordered the company to stop its coal ash dumping immediately.
Modern industry produces many things, from coal ash to computers, that are difficult to dispose of properly.
Coal ash contains low concentrations of arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals, although it's not classified as hazardous.
On Monday, a dike gave way, the coal ash that had been turned into sludge in the pond flooded the neighboring areas.
Avg coal waste per unit: 300, 000 tons of coal ash annually.
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The investigations into coal ash have been ongoing ever since a retention wall owned and controlled by the TVA broke in December 2008.
At issue, generally, is how those companies with coal-based operations will protect their citizens from coal ash that is now being walled off.
Coal ash is disposed of either as a liquid that goes into large surface impoundments or as a solid that is placed into landfills.
That is all to conform with the array of EPA regulations on the horizon that include everything from mercury to coal ash to carbon dioxide.
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When combined with other restrictions on coal ash and cooling water EPA is planning, capacity losses will more likely be somewhere between 3.5% and 7%.
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Coal ash is captured before it can escape at a smoke stack into the air, it's channeled into ponds near the river and contained there by earthen dikes.
But if the material is reclassified as a hazardous waste, coal groups say that coal ash would be irreversibly stigmatized and any ancillary use of it would evaporate.
Adams, executive director of the American Coal Ash Association.
"This consent decree offers the fastest and most certain path available to EPA to stop the discharge of coal ash from the Badger into Lake Michigan, " said Susan Hedman, EPA regional administrator.
"The S.S. Badger, the filthiest ship on the Great Lakes, has been given two more years to dump hundreds of tons of dangerous coal ash into Lake Michigan, " Durbin said in a statement.
The agreement between Lake Michigan Carferry, which operates the S.S. Badger, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would require the ship to retain its coal ash during trips across the lake and dispose of it on land.
Add to that the extraordinary talent in the kitchens of Dublin's Michelin-starred restaurants as well as in hole-in-the-wall cafes in the countryside, and you have nothing less than a culinary rebirth, a phoenix rising from the coal ash, deliciously.
Under both pending approaches, EPA would leave in place an exemption that allows for the beneficial recycling of coal ash a huge business that alleviates already stressed landfills and a process that EPA says will keep the public safe.
The topic may foment now that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has said that the Tennessee Valley Authority could have prevented the spilling of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into local communities there.
But the most politically feasible path is for the agency to finalize a rule that permits coal ash to keep its solid waste status while also requiring new disposal methods a move that would be litigated by opponents, delaying its implementation.
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Further, the coal is low on sulfur and fly ash content, which increases its attractiveness.
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Or to extract germanium from the fly ash from the burning of coal.
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They can cause cancer, kidney problems, nervous-system diseases, but it all depends on how much is in the ash, and that depends to start with, with the coal itself.
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