Durbin, Duckworth Lead Letter To Epa Urging The Agency To Protect Communities From Coal Ash
SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), founder of the Environmental Justice Caucus, today led eight of their colleagues in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to expand the protections in the agency’s newly-proposed rule to safeguard communities and the environment from the dangers of coal combustion residuals (CCR). In their letter, the Senators express their support for EPA’s move to address the loopholes exempting legacy CCR impoundments from compliance. “We write to provide comment on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed changes to the coal combustion residuals (CCR), or ‘coal ash,’ rule for inactive, or ‘legacy,’ CCR surface impoundments and CCR management units. We appreciate EPA’s efforts to close the egregious loophole exempting legacy CCR impoundments from compliance,” wrote the Senators. “While