[Your Name]

[Your Street or P.O. Address]

[City, State, Zip Code]

 

[Date]

 

The Honorable Jo Bonner

2236 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

 

Dear Representative Bonner:

 

Coal combustion waste is hazardous, and must be regulated as so. As such, we respectfully ask you to not sign onto Representative Holden’s letter to President Obama opposing the regulation of toxic coal ash as a hazardous waste under subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

 

Coal combustion waste contains concentrated levels of toxic, radioactive, and carcinogenic compounds like arsenic, chromium, lead, mercury, thorium, and uranium. The cancer risks associated with exposure to coal combustion waste are equivalent to breathing air with radon concentrations 20 times the level considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or drinking water polluted with 20 times the amount of vinyl chloride the EPA has set as the maximum contaminant level. The added cancer risk to children who drink water contaminated with arsenic from coal combustion waste is 900 times higher than the EPA’s recommended level. 

 

The adverse health effects of coal ash are a real threat to Congressional District 1 voters and residents. Currently, coal ash associated with the TVA Kingston, TN disaster is shipped to the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, AL at the rate of 8,000 to 11,000 tons each day. Perry County is on the Alabama River and, therefore, drains to Mobile Bay. Earlier this year Liquid Environmental Solutions (LES), a wastewater processing plant in Mobile, considered contracting to accept and treat shipments of wastewater from the Arrowhead Landfill before routing it through the Mobile Area Water Sewer System and discharging into Mobile Bay. Fortunately for Mobile Bay area residents, LES stopped the process after many citizens expressed concern. 

 

EPA must regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste under subtitle C of RCRA to provide the necessary, consistent, and nationwide protection for citizens. EPA must create federally enforceable minimum standards, provide opportunities for public participation, issue permits, and conduct regular inspections of coal ash facilities. Additionally, EPA must require the phase-out of coal ash ponds.

 

Please be a leader in protecting our water resources and public health by supporting the regulation of coal combustion waste as a hazardous waste.

 

Sincerely,

 

[Your name]

 

cc: Administrator Lisa Jackson, United States Environmental Protection Agency