Illinois EPA Proposes to Allow Serial Polluter to Operate New Coal Strip Mine Upstream of Canton Lake

Help residents protect their drinking water and ask state regulators to do their jobs – sign the petition now!

Residents in Canton are worried about their drinking water. Unfortunately, they have good reason to be. Canton Lake, Copperas Creek, and the people who rely on them are under threat from a proposed 1,000-acre strip mine a mile upstream of Canton Lake.

Over 20,000 people rely on Canton Lake for their drinking water and have taken great lengths to protect this precious resource over the years. For many residents and others who travel to the region, this is an area valued for hunting along and fishing in Copperas Creek, the source for Canton Lake.

Any strip mine would be cause for concern; strip mining coal strips the land of trees and vegetation, regrades the land affecting drainage patterns, and creates water pollution. This would be bad for drinking water. But in this case, there is even more cause for concern. The operator of the mining company behind the proposal for the North Canton Mine (Capitol Resources Development Company) is the same operator for the company (Springfield Coal Company) that runs the Industry Mine. Springfield Coal Company is being sued by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan because the Industry Mine’s environmental compliance record is one of the worst for coal mines in Illinois. The case was originally brought by Prairie Rivers Network and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club in 2009 due to the mine’s continuous violations of its current water permit dating back at least to 2004 and with over 300 Clean Water Act Violations in the past six years. {Continue Reading »}

CALL TODAY – November 9, 2011

Our last hope for EPA to protect us from coal ash pollution lies in our U.S. Senators hands.

Coal Ash Pond, Havana, IL

Coal ash is contaminating our groundwater because it is not disposed of safely. In fact, Illinois has more cases of contaminated groundwater from coal ash than any other state.

Call Senators Durbin and Kirk and tell them to vote NO on S. 1751!

Senator Richard J. Durbin 202/224-2152
Senator Mark Kirk 202/224-2854

Talking points include:

• S.1751 endangers the health and safety of thousands of communities: it will prevent the EPA from ever revisiting a federal coal ash rule even if it is found that coal ash dumps pose an even greater threat.
• S.1751 is a dangerous bill: it would allow the construction of coal ash dumps that don’t meet drinking water standards for arsenic, lead and other pollutants.
• S.1751 will cost American jobs: A recent study by a Tufts University senior economist found that strong coal ash regulations, such as the one proposed by the EPA in 2010, would generate 28,000 jobs annually.
• S.1751 will hurt recycling: once coal ash is dumped into water, which this bill would allow by permitting the construction of new coal ash ponds, it cannot be recycled.
• S.1751 fails to address the current threat: this bill will not phase out dangerous ash ponds or prevent another tragedy like the coal ash spill in Tennessee in 2008.
• Coal ash is hazardous to our health: the cancer risk from drinking water contaminated by arsenic near some coal ash ponds is 1 in 50, which is 2,000 times greater than the EPA’s acceptable risk level
• Coal ash is a national problem: it is the second largest industrial waste stream in the U.S.

You can find more information about S.1751 here

You can read more about Prairie Rivers Network’s work on coal ash here.

Just two weeks after the House of Representatives caved to the coal industry and voted to strip the EPA of the authority to protect Americans from coal ash, a retaining bluff collapsed on Monday, October 31, at the We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant in Wisconsin, sending toxic coal ash spewing into Lake Michigan, a drinking water supply for over 10 million residents in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

The standard line from opponents of strong EPA regulation of toxic coal ash is: “States can handle this.”  But state environmental regulators gave We Energies a pass in 2008 – exempting it from certain rules so that construction work could be done atop coal ash landfills on a bluff on the Lake Michigan shoreline at the utility’s Oak Creek Power Plant, officials said Tuesday.  A recent review conducted by Earthjustice reveals that when measured against basic safeguards that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified as essential to protect health and the environment, state regulatory programs fail miserably to guarantee safety from contamination and catastrophe.  Our recent report, “Illinois at Risk,” highlights numerous examples of how our state environment regulators are failing to protect residents from coal ash pollution in Illinois.

Our last hope for EPA to protect us from coal ash pollution lies in our U.S. Senators hands.

Tell your Senator to support the EPA’s efforts to give us strong safeguards on coal ash!

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Weighs In

In an editorial published in last Friday’s Los Angeles Times, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Lisa Jackson called on U.S. Representatives to stop their unrelenting assault on our nation’s landmark environmental laws, including “an unprecedented rollback of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and our nation’s waste-disposal laws, all of which have successfully protected our families for decades.” (Read this excellent article, “‘Too Dirty to Fail’?” here).

Jackson lambastes the myth that protecting the environment and public health hurts the economy, calling it “a choice that’s been proved wrong for the four decades that the EPA has been in existence. No credible economist links our current economic crisis — or any economic crisis — to tough clean-air and clean-water standards.”

In today’s anti-environment climate in Washington and here in Illinois, clean air and clean water have become more politicized than ever. That’s why we need YOU to participate in the public process. In the next days and weeks you’ll hear more from us about how to get in touch with agency officials and your legislators to let them know that you support strong protections for clean water, including:

• Ask Illinois EPA to deny permits that would allow a coal fired power plant to dump more mercury into the Illinois River,  and that would allow a strip mine to open upstream of  Canton Lake, a drinking water and recreational resource for over 20,000 residents of Fulton County.

• Urge your Senators to vote against legislation that would strip EPA of its ability to protect clean water from toxic coal ash. Less than a week after the U.S. House passed H.R. 2377, an identical bill was introduced in the Senate.  Like H.R. 2273, the Senate bill seeks to eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to ensure that storage and disposal of coal ash waste protects the health of our rivers and communities. Not yet numbered, leading champions for the bill are U.S. Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), and John Boozman (R-Ark.). Like the House version, the Senate bill lacks common sense safeguards that would protect communities from irresponsible coal ash dumping, and leave regulations up to the states. As the bill moves through the Senate, we will need your help to block or defeat it, and will let you know how best to make your concerns loud and clear.

• Let your legislators know that you support their efforts to defend Farm Bill conservation programs, our nation’s primary defense against agricultural pollution, which is not covered by the Clean Water Act. See Prairie Rivers Network Farm Bill priorities here.

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Mountain communities in the heart of Appalachia are engaged in a high stakes fight to save their land, water and way of life from mountaintop removal coal mining. Join us on Wednesday, October 19th at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign YMCA at 7:30pm when Appalachian Voices comes to Champaign.

Appalachian Voices is an award-winning, environmental non-profit committed to protecting the land, air and water of the central and southern Appalachian region, focusing on reducing coal’s impact on the region and advancing our vision for a cleaner energy future.

Their unique work brings the experience of residents living with some of the most destructive coal mines to audiences across the country. Prairie Rivers Network staff will also discuss what the implications of developments in Appalachia mean for coal mining in the Illinois Coal Basin.

***UPDATE 10/14/2011***

This afternoon H.R. 2273 passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 267-144. Illinois Representatives who voted to take away EPA’s ability to implement commonsense safeguards to protect communities and their waters from coal ash pollution include:

• Rep. Peter Roskam (R. 6th)
• Rep. Joe Walsh (R. 8th)
• Rep. Robert Dold (R. 10th)
• Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R. 11th)
• Rep. Judy Biggert (R. 13th)
• Rep. Randy Hultgren (R. 14th)
• Rep. Tim Johnson (R. 15th)
• Rep. Donald Manzullo (R. 16th)
• Rep. Robert Schilling (R. 17th)
• Rep. Aaron Schock (R. 18th)
• Rep. John Shimkus (R. 19th)
  

This bill must now be stopped in the Senate – stay tuned for information on how to contact your Senators.

***

House prepares to block EPA

Your U.S. Representatives need to hear from you now as Congress tries to push the  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) out of the way in favor of continuing to put the coal industry’s bottom line ahead of protecting clean water.

Over a year ago, EPA proposed improved rules for how to store and dispose of harmful coal ash in response to the more than 100 known coal ash contamination cases in the U.S.  Over 450,000 public comments were received – more than had ever been received for any other proposed regulation.  Despite the overwhelming public outcry for protection from mismanagement of coal ash at the state level, as part of the War on Water some Congressional Representatives have advanced a bill that would prevent EPA from finishing the process of proposing commonsense safeguards to limit coal ash pollution.  The bill, H.R. 2273, is expected to come up for a vote this week (Oct 14).  Please take a moment to call your U.S. Representative NOW and ask them to Vote No on H.R. 2273!

Find your Representative here.

Talking points include:

1)      VOTE NO on H.R. 2273!

2)      Let EPA use its expertise, public feedback and the best science to decide how to regulate coal ash – without interference by Congress or special interest groups that have donated millions to anti-EPA campaigns.

3)      Improper management of coal ash in Illinois has earned us the distinction of having the second highest number of documented coal-ash damage sites of any state in the U.S.

4)      The public is at risk. Despite its hazardous characteristics, coal ash is not subject to federal regulations, and state laws governing coal ash disposal in Illinois are weak.

5)      Coal ash is toxic. Coal ash, the by-product of burning coal, contains toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury. The public health and environmental hazards from unsafe coal ash dumping have been known for many years, including increased risk of cancer, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, birth defects, reproductive failure, asthma and other sicknesses.

Read more on this upcoming vote.