Comment submitted by The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York

The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York is a Buffalo NY-based non-profit organization which works with fenceline and frontline communities in Erie and Niagara Counties to organize for environmental justice and public health. Our area is home to several shuttered coal fired power plants in various stages of remediation and repurposing, including the NRG Huntley plant in the Town of Tonawanda, which we run a campaign on, as well as NRG Somerset, which was the last coal fired power plant in NYS to phase down. We are also home to the confluence of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario through the Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, plus additional connecting waterbodies, like the Buffalo River and 8-Mile Creek. Our pre-regulatory industrial legacy left these waterbodies damaged and legacy unlined coal ash landfills and settling ponds threaten the future of these waterbodies as well as the health and safety of nearby residents. It's frankly staggering and appalling that the EPA is proposing to add to this existing burden by proposing to roll back protections that require coal plants to treat toxic “unmanaged” leachate wastewater under the Steam Electric Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELGs). The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York strongly opposes the proposed rule change that would roll back requirements for coal plants to treat toxic “unmanaged” wastewater under the Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELGs) and urges the EPA to reject these proposed changes. Further, we urge the EPA to instead strengthen, not weaken, Clean Water Act protections that keep toxic pollution out of rivers, lakes, streams, groundwater, and drinking water sources. The existing regulations are forcing major polluters like NRG to take action to clean up their legacy coal ash pollution in places like WNY, but we find that even with these existing rules, we have been forced to push and advocate for implementation and enforcement - stronger protections are needed to make corporate polluters clean up their mess as standard procedure. We urge EPA to withdraw this proposal.