The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing dangerous rollbacks to coal ash protections that would endanger the health of communities across the country. Coal ash, the toxic waste produced from burning coal, contains arsenic, mercury, lead and other hazardous pollutants that are linked to cancer and serious illness.

For decades, utilities dumped this waste into unlined ponds and landfills, allowing it to leak into drinking water. Strong federal safeguards put in place in 2015 and expanded in 2024, finally began holding polluters accountable. Now, those protections are being dismantled, exempting hundreds of toxic dump sites and allowing companies to delay or avoid cleanup altogether.

This is a direct threat to public health. Industry data already shows that groundwater at most coal plant sites is contaminated above federal safety standards. Weakening these rules only ensures more pollution, more illness and more communities left to deal with the consequences.

The EPA’s job is to protect people, not corporate polluters. We must speak out and demand that these safeguards remain in place. Our health, our water and our future depend on it.

Heather Keast
South Portland