Dear Friend,

Your help is needed to assure that coal ash—a toxic, dangerous waste—is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA promised to regulate coal ash after more than 1 billion gallons of it burst from a Tennessee storage pond last December, poisoning water supplies, destroying homes and threatening hundreds of residents.

But despite the threat, coal ash remains federally unregulated and uncontrolled. Our kitchen garbage is better regulated.

This waste can cause cancer, birth defects, lung and organ damage, and other health threats. It contains such dangerous chemicals as arsenic, lead, mercury, chromium and cadmium. There is enough coal ash in ponds and landfills across the country to flow continuously over Niagara Falls for more than 3 days straight!

The good news is that the law authorizes the EPA to provide strong protections that will greatly reduce the threat to our water supplies and our health. However, the EPA must use the strongest parts of the law in order to ensure protection for all communities threatened by coal ash disposal. Coal ash must be regulated as hazardous waste, and coal ash disposal in ponds must be phased out.

Your support is important because the coal and power industries don't want to clean up their mess. They're pushing EPA hard to take the easy route and issue unenforceable guidance that won't protect our health and environment.

Tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that you support regulating coal ash as hazardous waste and prohibiting the creation of new ash ponds: http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/coalash_0909/na977dj5k6?

— Earthjustice
Because the earth needs a good lawyer