Comment submitted by Prairie Rivers Network

(In depth comments are attached) Thank you for the opportunity to submit comments on proposed modifications to the federal coal ash rules. Prairie Rivers Network and our membership strongly oppose the proposed rollbacks on federal coal ash rules. Prairie Rivers Network is a non-profit environmental organization working to protect water, heal land, and inspire change. Our staff, partners, and membership have worked across Illinois to ensure our communities and environment are protected from coal ash pollution. These protections exist because of the lived experiences of communities harmed by the mismanagement of toxic ash. They are a product of decades of scientific research, public input, and litigation. Weakening these protections is not a regulatory adjustment. It is a decision about whose health this agency is willing to sacrifice. In our 2018 coal ash report, Cap and Run, Prairie Rivers Network and partners reviewed groundwater data, reported by the coal ash companies themselves, at 24 coal ash sites across Illinois. We found unsafe groundwater contamination at 22 of those 24 sites. One alarming aspect of these proposed rollbacks is the exemption of hundreds of dangerous coal ash dumps from federal oversight, including old landfills, dry coal ash ponds, and other old ash disposal sites. Facilities like Prairie State, Newton, Hennepin, Coffeen, Duck Creek, Joppa, and Springfield would be allowed to avoid proper cleanup, leaving coal ash in contact with groundwater for years to come. Particularly, at the Newton coal ash site, the company has been collecting groundwater data for their unlined, inactive landfill that contains 643,000 cubic yards of coal ash. Data from 2024 and 2025 show contamination well above groundwater protection standards, the legal criterion for determining which CCR surface impoundments pose a reasonable probability of adverse effects on health or the environment. This data showed chloride exceedances as high as one and a half times the groundwater protection standard, sulfate at more than double, and total dissolved solids at more than three times the standard. Another major concern is the rollback’s effect on legacy coal ash pond closures that closed before July 2021 under less-protective standards. This proposed rule would strip away deadlines and allow sites to delay action indefinitely or allow the avoidance of cleanup completely. This would affect a multitude of sites like Venice, Hutsonville, Hennepin, Meredosia, Baldwin, and Coffeen. Specifically, at the Baldwin coal ash site, the inactive Fly Ash Pond System has approximately 4250 acre-ft of coal ash in its system. The system was capped in place in 2020 using a less protective regulation, leaving coal ash in contact with groundwater. Groundwater sampling from 2024 and 2025 identified exceedances for boron, chloride, cobalt, fluoride, molybdenum, lithium, sulfate, and total dissolved solids. The data showed max chloride levels exceeding groundwater protection standards by more than seven times, lithium by more than four times, and lead at more than double. The pollution at Newton and Baldwin are just two examples of why the current federal rules are necessary; dozens of other similar stories exist in Illinois. The contamination documented at these sites does not stop at the property lines. It moves and feeds into rivers, lakes, and oceans that communities rely on for our drinking water, food, and play. All the while, coal companies have profited from burning coal for generations. The cost of cleanup is a fraction of the long-term costs of health impacts, productivity, and the environmental damage caused by coal ash pollution. Strong EPA enforcement is essential to holding violators accountable and protecting communities from further harm, which is why we urge the US EPA to maintain and enforce the current federal coal ash protections.