[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 14, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E82-E83]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       COAL ASH RECLAMATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. NICK J. RAHALL, II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 14, 2009

  Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, years ago a coal miner from West Virginia 
wrote a letter to me noting that every single federal law regulating 
coal was penned in blood. He was referring to the fact that it took an 
explosion claiming 78 souls in 1968 at a mine in Farmington, West 
Virginia, to give rise to the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act 
of 1969. And that it took the failure of a coal slurry impoundment at 
Buffalo Creek, in Logan County, West Virginia, that killed 125 people, 
for the Congress to finally pass the Surface Mining Control and 
Reclamation Act of 1977.
  Just a few weeks ago, in December, a facility owned by the Tennessee 
Valley Authority (TVA) gave way, unleashing an avalanche of coal ash 
sludge that covered more than 300 acres. This time Heaven intervened, 
and thankfully no lives were lost.
  This disaster--which could have been avoided if TVA had exercised 
appropriate engineering and monitoring regimes at its Kingston facility 
in Harriman, Tennessee--was a clarion call for action. Now is the time 
to take that action, before any lives are lost to a similar disaster.
  Simply put, there are no federal standards for coal ash impoundments. 
They are constructed and maintained under a patchwork of State 
requirements, or on a voluntary basis.
  Today I am introducing legislation to impose uniform federal design, 
engineering, and performance standards on coal ash impoundments. These 
standards are aimed at ensuring the structural stability of these 
impoundments, and requiring adequate monitoring and inspection regimes 
to avoid a repeat of what happened at Kingston, Tennessee, and what 
almost happened just last week at another TVA facility in Alabama.
  Coal ash is a byproduct of the combustion of coal at electric utility 
powerplants. Some of the coal ash produced is recycled, usually as 
construction materials like concrete, Portland cement, and wallboard. 
However, the majority of coal ash is deposited in impoundments, 
landfills, or mines.
  The larger issue here is how to regulate coal ash, and, in this 
respect, the track record is woefully inadequate. Back in 1980, former 
Representative Tom Bevill of Alabama and this gentleman from West 
Virginia successfully offered an amendment to what became the Solid 
Waste Disposal Act of 1980 requiring the Environmental Protection 
Agency (EPA) to determine how to regulate coal ash.
  I am sorry to say that after 29 years the EPA has yet to do so. Over 
the years, I have cajoled the agency to move forward. It came close to 
making a decision under the Clinton Administration, then retrenched 
under the Bush Administration. I called for a study by the National 
Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences on this issue, 
which was completed in 2006. Following up on that study, last year our 
colleague, Rep. Jim Costa, in his capacity as the Chairman of the 
Energy and Minerals Subcommittee of the Natural Resources Committee, 
held a hearing on coal ash. The study, and the hearing, all pointed to 
the pressing need for a federal regulatory regime governing the 
disposal of coal ash, whether in impoundments, landfills, or in mines.
  I have no doubt that the Obama Administration will finally take 
action on this issue. In the meantime, however, the purpose of my 
legislation is to address the engineering aspects of the impoundments 
themselves.
  For its part, the electric utility industry says it complies with 
voluntary guidelines in this matter. And some States claim they have 
adequate requirements. Yet, as it stands, one State might require 
strict standards for the construction of a coal ash pond, while the 
State next door largely ignores how coal ash ponds are constructed. 
Pennsylvania, for example, requires a solid waste permit for all 
surface impoundments that receive coal ash, while Illinois and Indiana 
are among the states that regulate surface impoundments as water

[[Page E83]]

pollution control facilities, rather than solid waste management units.
  Similarly, requirements for liners for coal ash ponds vary State by 
State. For example, Alabama and Florida do not require liners for 
surface impoundments for coal ash, while Wisconsin does.
  The argument that all States have adequate regulations for coal ash 
is not substantiated by the facts. It is impossible to write off the 
disaster in Tennessee as a freak accident. The absence of national 
standards for coal ash has resulted in environmental damage throughout 
the country--not just last month, or last year, but for decades. In 
2007, the EPA recognized 67 contaminated sites in 23 states where coal 
combustion byproducts have polluted groundwater or surface water. This 
may be just the tip of the iceberg, because most coal ash sites in the 
United States are not adequately monitored.
  The ``Coal Ash Reclamation and Environmental Safety Act of 2009'' 
requires minimum design and stability standards for all surface 
impoundments constructed to hold coal ash. The bill draws on the 
regulatory model for impoundments that is used for coal slurry 
management under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 
1977. Requirements for coal slurry impoundments that would be made 
applicable to coal ash impoundments under 2 this legislation cover 
aspects of design, construction, operation, and closure, including:
  Regulations detailing the engineering and stability of the 
embankment.
  Regulations requiring all applications for an impoundment to have a 
foundation investigation to determine design requirements for 
stability.
  Each design plan must include a geotechnical investigation of the 
embankment foundation area.
  Each impoundment plan must include a survey describing the potential 
effect on the structure from subsidence of the subsurface strata 
resulting from past mining operations in the area.
  Plans for impoundments must be reviewed by a geologist or an 
engineer.
  Regulations requiring that a qualified engineer, with experience in 
construction of impoundments, inspect each impoundment regularly during 
construction, upon completion of construction, and periodically 
thereafter.
  The ``Coal Ash Reclamation and Environmental Safety Act of 2009'' 
also requires immediate development of a detailed inventory and 
analysis of all existing coal ash disposal sites, to guide informed and 
prompt decisions on how to bring that universe of ponds and lagoons up 
to safe standards, now.
  For States that already have careful standards for coal ash disposal, 
the bill I am introducing will not be a problem. For those that do not, 
the ``Coal Ash Reclamation Environmental Safety Act of 2009'' will 
require immediate attention to shocking gaps in coal ash management.
  As a witness at our hearing last year so presciently reminded the 
Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals: ``the cost of safe disposal [of 
coal ash] is not burdensome to industry, although it has proved, at 
site after site, to be catastrophic to the public and the 
environment.''
  The time to act is now.

                          ____________________