Freedumb! KY Gov Bevin Policy - No Review, Or Even Public Notice, On New Coal Waste Dumps

[hatrack]

http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/avikrh/picture122080189/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/OLb4A.So.79
Homes like this one in Harriman, Tenn. were swamped by sludge when a TVA power-plant waste impoundment collapsed in December 2008.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article122080199.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article122080199.html#storylink=cpy

When Tom FitzGerald calls something “the most reckless regulatory program I have seen proposed in my 36 years of practicing environmental law,” that’s a superlative that should set off alarms. FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, was referring to a proposal from the Bevin administration that would exclude the public from even being notified when electrical utilities are planning to build or modify disposal sites for the tons of waste generated by coal-fired power plants.

Under the proposed rule, utilities could begin building or modifying landfills or waste-holding impoundments without any review by the state environmental agency of the design, siting, operation or plans for future monitoring. And the public would have no way of raising concerns or commenting.

This approach would upend decades of environmental and public protections. It also conflicts with Kentucky’s own waste-management laws.

The potential for catastrophic pollution is real, as the people of Kingston, Tenn. discovered around this time eight years ago when a dike failed on a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-ash impoundment, dumping more than a billion gallons of sludge on the neighbors and into the Clinch River, requiring a $1 billion cleanup.


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http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article122080199.html