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Thursday, November 18, 2010
News Last chance to comment on EPA's coal ash regulations
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 11:02 AM
Think of commenting on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed coal ash regulations as voting, except you don't have to leave your office chair. But, you better make it snappy because tomorrow's the last day to comment. It's a chance you don't want to miss, either. Why? Because the safety of our drinking water is at stake.
Further reading: Is coal ash poisoning Charlotte's drinking water?
Here are your choices: Subtitle C and Subtitle D. Both generic descriptors for vastly different options. One will classify coal ash, which is the waste generated when coal is burned, as a "special," or hazardous, waste — and the other won't. One will institute tight governmental regulations and the other won't; citizens will have to sue to enforce the regulation. Both of the regulations will cost energy companies money, which they promise to pass down to us, but they'll save us much more money in health care costs. To distill things even further, Subtitle C is the option environmentalists want to see enacted and the coal industry is behind Subtitle D.
On the EPA's website, you can review the key differences between the regulations here and review their FAQ section here. Once you've decided which version of the regulation you'd like to support, our Catawba Riverkeeper has created some comment easy buttons for you that will make commenting a snap. (Here's the link.)
I've already offered my comment, and I chose Subtitle C. I did so for a lot of reasons, but the reason I stood up at the EPA's Charlotte hearing on the topic was because someone needed to represent the people of my home state of Alabama, where the coal ash from the coal ash disaster in Tennessee is being dumped in one of the state's poorest communities. (There was no hearing in Alabama.) I can't stand by and watch industry and our government dump a substance that may be hazardous next to a bunch of poor people then dare them to challenge their authority. In my book, that's flat-out wrong.
Further reading: Coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste — Scientific American
Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes snarky commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.
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