SE States Facing Enormous Coal Ash Accumulations, Groundwater Contamination & Cleanup Costs
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Trump himself has not commented on coal ash, but has pledged to reign in the EPA’s regulatory authority, nominating vocal EPA critic Scott Pruitt to head the administration. He has also appointed a former lobbyist for Southern Company — a southeastern power company that has considerable coal assets — as acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resource Division. The Environment and Natural Resource Division is the division of the Justice Department that prosecutes environmental crimes — including the 2015 case against Duke Energy related to the Dan River coal ash spill.
“We don’t expect much enforcement to come out of the Trump administration,” Lisa Evans, an attorney with EarthJustice specializing in hazardous waste law, told ThinkProgress. “Fortunately, we’re not looking at a situation where the [EPA coal ash] rule can’t be enforced. We’re looking at an administration that is likely to be very reluctant to vigorously enforce the rule.”
But choosing to ignore the issue of coal ash pollution might be a political miscalculation for Trump, who could run the risk of indulging the policy preferences of Washington lobbyists and think-tanks at the expense of his voter base. “If the Trump administration thinks that people who support Trump want more coal ash pollution in their community, they just don’t understand what is happening in the local communities where people voted for Trump,” Holleman said.
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Take, for example, Pickens County, South Carolina — a county that voted almost 74 percent for Trump, his highest margin in the state. Residents there are currently embroiled in a fight against a recycling and waste company that wants to build a coal ash landfill within the county. Despite a bill passed by the state legislature aimed at barring the company from disposing of coal ash in the county, the waste company is currently suing the county for $25 million, citing a breach of contract. According to local news coverage, residents of Pickens County filled the county council’s chambers several times in 2016, urging the council to reject the landfill proposal. “I don’t think you could find a Trump supporter in the county of Pickens who is a supporter of coal ash, nor a supporter of weakening coal ash protection,” Holleman said. “If communities learn and perceive that the national government is not standing up to protect them from problems associated with coal ash, they will not like that and they will react against it.”
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Ed. - well, lotsa luck with that, Pickens County residents. Keep on voting Republican, 'cuz freedumb!!!
https://thinkprogress.org/coal-ash-enforcement-donald-trump-956f25100ccd#.6npk1j8bt