Protect America's public health from toxic coal ash Help us crack down on toxic coal ash waste dumps

Dear friend,

A filing by Earthjustice and other environmental groups recently forced the EPA to admit that nearly 600 toxic coal ash waste ponds -- almost twice as many as previously thought -- are scattered across the country.

This news follows last December's collapse of a coal ash storage pond that engulfed a Tennessee town in a billion gallons of toxic mire, destroying homes and property, poisoning surrounding waters and wildlife, and elevating the community's cancer risk.

Despite this horrific event and others like it, no federal regulations exist to control these destructive, poisonous storage areas. You can help us change that.

Please help us protect Americans from exposure to toxic coal ash waste.

Every year, coal-burning power plants across the country generate enough ash waste to fill a cargo train that would stretch from Washington, D.C., to Melbourne, Australia.

It's poured into unlined storage ponds and dumped into abandoned and active mines across America, where it silently poisons drinking water with arsenic, lead, and a host of other chemicals.

Yet your own household trash -- including things like banana peels and apple cores -- is more strictly regulated than coal ash.

We are pursuing smart legal and administrative strategies to expose and regulate this secret health threat, but we cannot succeed without you.

Please support our work to control toxic coal ash waste with an urgent gift today.

EPA's own studies show that the cancer risk from exposure to the arsenic in coal ash is off the charts. Coal ash cancer risks are so high from arsenic-tainted water that drinking from a well located a mile from a coal ash pond can increase your chances of getting cancer far above the risk posed by smoking a pack a day of cigarettes. And this is just one item on a laundry list of toxins contained in the coal ash that's dumped into unregulated ponds across the country.

So far, our work has helped convince the media to spotlight the dangers of coal ash and push the U.S Environmental Protection Agency to propose regulations to control coal ash disposal.

But there's much more to do. The powerful, deep-pocketed coal lobby is pressuring public officials to maintain the dirty, destructive status quo.

Help us stem the tide of unregulated toxic coal ash disposal.

Earthjustice's legal and legislative experts are working in the courts and on Capitol Hill to crack down on coal ash and kick America's addiction to coal. With your support, we can fight back against the coal lobby and set our country on the path toward a clean, renewable energy future.

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Trip Van Noppen
President, Earthjustice