Regulating Coal Combustion Waste Disposal: Issues for Congress
"Coal combustion waste (CCW) is inorganic material that remains after pulverized coal is burned for electricity production. A tremendous amount of the material is generated each year—industry estimates that as much as 136 million tons were generated in 2008. On December 22, 2008, national attention was turned to issues regarding the waste when a breach in an impoundment pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Kingston, TN, power plant released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry. The cleanup cost has been estimated to reach $1.2 billion.

While the incident at Kingston drew national attention to the potential for a sudden catastrophic release of waste, it is not the primary risk attributed to CCW management. An April 2010 risk assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated that CCW disposal in unlined landfills and surface impoundments presents substantial risks to human health and the environment from releases of toxic constituents (particularly arsenic and selenium) into surface and groundwater. Those releases are largely prevented when the waste is disposed of in landfills and surface impoundments equipped with composite liners. In addition to potential risks, EPA has
reported numerous cases of documented damages to surface and groundwater when CCW was
deposited into unlined disposal units or used as construction fill..."