Kathy Castor: “My amendment requires the owners and operators of coal ash ponds to immediately clean up pollution from spills or…”

“My amendment requires the owners and operators of coal ash ponds to immediately clean up pollution from spills or disasters that involve their coal ash waste. The underlying bill inexplicably did not contain such a requirement. I know that is hard to believe, in the face of the horrendous coal ash disasters of the past 2 years, that my Republican colleagues did not include such a requirement. So my amendment reinstitutes the requirement for cleanup of these disasters. Now, the EPA rule requires an owner or operator of coal ash waste to respond immediately to a spill or release, whether it is through the air, water, or soil. The rule requires the polluter to alert both the local authorities and the public and to immediately prepare a cleanup plan. I mean, that is a fundamental concept of doing business, isn't it? Yet the Republican bill eliminates that requirement for owners and operators. They would no longer have to be responsible for their pollution or a disaster? That is a scary proposition after the Dan River Duke Energy spill in North Carolina that spilled over 39,000 tons of coal ash and 140,000 tons of toxic wastewater, and after the TVA blowout that they say will cost over a billion dollars to remediate that community. Now, there are over 600 coal waste disposal impoundments across the Nation, and more than 100 million tons of coal waste are generated each year.…”