Comment submitted by Brady Watson

My name is Brady Watson and I’m an organizer with the energy campaign at the Union of Concerned Scientists. At UCS we strive to put science to work to protect people and the places they call home. For my campaign specifically, that means pointing out the risks and harms of fossil fuels like coal and the need to uphold strong public health protections to keep communities safe. Unfortunately this proposal from the Trump EPA moves us in the exact opposite direction, doing the bidding of the administration’s fossil fuel donors instead of looking out for the interests of the public. For the past 7 years, I lived in Knoxville, TN, just a few miles down the road from Kingston, a small but proud community and home to the Kingston Coal Plant. Over those 7 years I got to know some of the people of Kingston and hear the awful stories of how they were living with the fallout of the worst industrial disaster in U.S. history: the Kingston Coal ash spill. In December of 2008, a dike containing coal ash ponds ruptured and sent over 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash slurry into the surrounding communities. Back then, the Tennessee Valley Authority used some of the same misleading talking points the Trump administration is using now: coal ash is safe, it doesn’t pose risks to communities; nothing to worry about. The reality is far different and the people of Kingston know it firsthand. In the years since 2008, after TVA and contractor Jacobs Engineering told the cleanup workers at the site of the spill that the coal ash was “safe enough to eat” and wouldn’t allow them to wear respirators, more than 60 of those workers have died from exposure to toxic coal ash. Ansol Clark, Tommy Johnson, Doug Bledsoe; just to name a few whose families I’ve gotten to know over the years. The community in East Tennessee is tightknit, and over the years I helped organize several Worker’s Memorial Day events to honor the lives of workers who lost their lives on the job over the course of the prior year. Back in 2023 I was helping at the event and got to see Tommy and his wife Betty. Then, just a few weeks later, Tommy died. Another life lost to toxic coal ash exposure. And yet here we are, with an agency tasked with protecting public health proposing a rule that would undeniably further endanger it. Coal ash kills. And as you consider this proposal and who is behind it, I ask that you remember the families of Kingston who are still dealing with its impacts. Remember Kingston and remember that coal ash is harmful, deadly, and needs stronger rules to protect people, not weaker ones.