FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 30, 2013 Contact: Alison Flowers, Sierra Club, 303-246-6297, alison.flowers@sierraclub.

org Tiffany Hartung, Sierra Club, 419-733-3145, tiffany.hartung@sierraclub.org

First-Ever U.S. Coal Ash Regulations to Safeguard Toxic Sites Across Michigan
Poorly regulated coal ash sites include Consumer Energys KarnWeadock and DTE Energys Monroe

BAY CITY, Mich. The Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to finalize the first-ever federal regulations for the disposal of coal ash, bringing life-saving action to communities nationwide, including many in Michigan where coal plants in the state generate more than 2 million tons of coal ash every year. The new national safeguards arise from a lawsuit brought by environmental and public health groups and a Native American tribe. Nearly 400 acres of toxic coal ash sit on the banks of Saginaw Bay at the mouth of the Saginaw River; the source of 34,000 Bay City residents drinking water, at the Jackson based Consumers Energys Karn-Weadock facility. Coal ash is the toxic residue left over when coal is burned for electricity. The toxins found in coal ash have been linked to organ disease, cancer, respiratory illness, neurological damage and developmental problems. Despite coal ashs dange rous characteristics, it is currently less strictly controlled than household garbage and often stored in unlined pools near water supplies and public buildings, such as schools. This decision is long overdue, and it will force Consumers Energy to come clean with the public about its dangerous pollution, said Terry Miller, a Bay City resident and chairman of the Lone Tree Council, a citizens group that has been fighting for environmental justice in its community since 1978. Cancer-causing coal ash has been in our backyards and along Michigans shoreline for much too long. In 2002, state-ordered testing showed that arsenic and other contaminants were leaking into the bay from Consumers Energys landfills, exceeding water-quality levels. In 2010,

Consumers Energy was given a notice of violation from the state for lack of monitoring. A year later, toxic coal ash drifted off-site during the demolition of storage silos, spreading harmful carcinogens, like arsenic and hexavalent chromium, and dangerous pollutants, like mercury and lead, into Bay City and surrounding areas. The EPA has also rated DTE Energys Monroe plants coal ash impoundment a significant hazard that could pose grave environmental harm if there was a breach of the impoundments earthen walls. DTE Energys Monroe plant, which generates 644.8 thousand tons of coal ash annually, was constructed in the mid-1970s at the mouth of Raisin River and Lake Erie. EPA needs to finalize a federally enforceable rule that will clean up the air a nd water pollution that threatens people in communities across Michigan and the country, said Tiffany Hartung, Sierra Club campaign representative for Michigan. We need strong, federal coal ash safeguards and to transition to cleaner energy that will reduce harmful coal ash pollution in the future. The Sierra Club is one of many parties to the action that resulted in a settlement yesterday, compelling the EPA to finalize a coal-ash rule by Dec. 19, 2014. ###