Environmental groups are up in arms about an amendment to a transportation bill passed through the House of Representatives on Wednesday that would prevent the EPA from regulating coal ash and its byproducts on a federal level.
Also known as coal combustion residuals (CCR), coal ash is a byproduct of large-scale coal-burning from coal-based power plants. The 14 coal-burning power plants in Florida, the closest to Tampa being the Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach, generate about a quarter or the state’s electricity and about 8 billion pounds of coal ash a year. There is currently no federal regulation on the disposal and storage of coal ash.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2012.