Comment submitted by Lindsey Mercer

Good afternoon, my name is Lindsey, and I am a student studying environmental law at the University of Tennessee. I am submitting this comment in response to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-3325. I have personal experience with the dangers of coal combustion residuals (CCR), having lived near Kingston, Tennessee — the site of the 2008 Kingston Coal Ash spill, one of the largest industrial disasters in American history. I have seen firsthand the devastation that improper CCR disposal can inflict on a community, and it is from that experience that I offer the following comments. I conditionally support the establishment of a federal CCR permitting program. Bringing CCR disposal under a structured permitting framework is a meaningful step toward accountability and oversight. However, I am concerned that this program will be built on a fundamentally inadequate foundation so long as the EPA continues to classify coal ash as a non-hazardous material. A permitting program is only as strong as the standards it enforces — and standards built around a non-hazardous classification will not adequately protect communities from a material that evidence shows is anything but. Coal ash is a byproduct of coal combustion and falls under the umbrella term CCR, which includes fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and other similar materials. While coal in its natural form contains trace amounts of harmful elements, the combustion process concentrates those elements significantly. A 2009 study conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Kingston spill found high concentrations of mercury, strontium, arsenic, barium, nickel, vanadium, and chromium in the coal ash — all of which are harmful, and several of which are known carcinogens. Other studies have identified significant quantities of lead and radon as well. These are not the characteristics of a non-hazardous material, and permitting its disposal without that reclassification sends the wrong message to the communities who live downstream. I urge the EPA to strengthen this permitting program by reconsidering the non-hazardous classification of coal ash. The people of Kingston did not have the benefit of strong federal oversight when disaster struck in 2008. This regulation is an opportunity to ensure that other communities do.