Scenes from the end of coal: A blasted mountaintop in Kentucky, an underground inferno in Pennsylvania, slowly dying maples in New Hampshire and a toxic pile of waste in Florida.
A central Pennsylvania conservation group is declaring the settlement a win for water quality and outdoor recreation, as the power plant moves to natural gas.
The rules include an extension for the closure of unlined coal ash lagoons. A recent study has shown more than 90% of these sites are leaking arsenic and other toxins at levels exceeding EPA health standards.
When it became clear that coal ash waste from a nearby power plant was making them sick, residents of one West Virginia town mobilized. But activists fear weakened regulations will make it harder for others to do the same.
A new report finds coal ash pollution is leaking into groundwater at nine power plants around Pennsylvania and over 200 nationwide. One western Pa. site has arsenic 372 times the 'safe' level.
Some 30 people who cleaned up the ash have died with ailments that can be linked to exposure to toxic elements of coal ash, and more than 250 are sick or dying.
