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SW: →Coal waste regulation: - add section
In 2001, the EPA said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used for the disposal of coal waste. However, the agency have yet to act, and coal ash ponds are currently subject to less regulation than landfills accepting household trash, despite the tens of thousands of pounds of toxic heavy metals stored in ash ponds across the U.S. State regulations vary, but most ash ponds are unlined and unmonitored.<ref name="ap"/> In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute for Southern Studies looked into political contributions by the electrical utilities industry to the members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. According to data Sturgis gathered from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website, members of the Senate committee accepted a total of $1,079,503 from the electric utilities industry in the 2008 elections.<ref>Sue Sturgis, [http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/01/toxic-influence-coal-ash-tainted-money-funds-senators-holding-tva-disaster-hearing.html "Toxic Influence: Coal ash-tainted money funds senators holding TVA disaster hearing,"] Institute for Southern Studies, January 7, 2009.</ref>
===2007 EPA Report===
On July 9, 2007, EPA's Office of Solid Waste released a report titled [http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/CoalAsh-Doc1.pdf "Coal Combustion Damage Case Assessments"] documenting 24 cases of proven environmental damage and 43 cases of potential damage caused by the current coal ash disposal practices nationwide.
Sue Sturgis of the Institute for Southern Studies summed up some of the proven coal-ash damage cases documented in EPA's 2007 assessment:<ref>Sue Sturgis, [http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/01/congressional-coal-ash-defenders-ignore-damages-back-home.html "Congressional coal ash defenders ignore damages back home"] facing South, January 25, 2010.</ref>
*In 2002, a sinkhole developed in the coal ash pond at [[Southern Company]]'s [[Georgia Power]]'s [[Bowen Steam Plant]] near Cartersville, Ga. Eventually spreading four acres wide and 30 feet deep, the sinkhole led to the spill of an estimated 2.25 million gallons of a coal ash and water mixture into the nearby Euharlee Creek.
*Runoff from a fly ash pond at [[Duke Energy]]'s [[Belews Creek Steam Station]] in North Carolina contaminated nearby Belews Lake, which experts have called "one of the most extensive and prolonged cases of selenium poisoning of freshwater fish in the United States."
*At [[South Carolina Electric & Gas]]'s [[Canadys Station]] along the Edisto River south of St. George, S.C., arsenic consistently has been found in monitoring wells at levels about drinking water standards, while nickel has also been detected on occasion above state standards. Both of those metals are known to cause cancer in humans.
*Residential wells near a coal ash disposal site for Virginia Power's [[Yorktown Power Station]], now owned by [[Dominion]], were found to be contaminated with selenium and vanadium, with selenium levels exceeding drinking water standards. Further investigation found [[heavy metals and coal|heavy metals]] contamination in nearby Chisman Creek and its tributaries, with elevated levels of known carcinogens including arsenic, beryllium and chromium.
*Selenium poisoning of fish caused by runoff from coal ash ponds was also documented at reservoirs near [[Southwestern Electric Power]]'s [[Pirkey Power Plant]] and its [[Welsh Power Plant]] in Texas, as well as near [[TXU]]'s [[Martin Lake Steam Station]].
===EPA considers regulating coal ash===
