The Washington Post discusses how the trump administration is rolling back Obama-era rule aimed at limiting toxic wastewater from coal plants. Power plant discharge ranks as the largest source of toxic water pollution in the United States. The Trump administration on Monday weakened a 2015 regulation that would have forced coal plants to treat wastewater with more modern, effective methods in order to curb toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury from contaminating lakes, rivers and streams near their facilities. In a statement, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said that the final rule’s “flexible, phased-in” approach would make it easier for the coal industry to comply while also protecting the environment. Three years ago the Trump administration delayed the Obama-era rule — which the EPA had estimated would keep 1.4 billion pounds of pollutants out of U.S. waterways each year — before replacing it with a scaled-back version.
New York Magazine discusses now the Trump Admin Makes It Easier for Coal Companies to Pollute in America Again. On Monday, the Trump administration put in place new regulations for how coal-fired power plants must discard of wastewater tainted by pollutants including lead, selenium, and arsenic, relaxing the steps that power companies must take before this liquid is released into local waterways. Environmental Protection Agency head Andrew Wheeler, himself a former coal lobbyist, praised the change as a way to “reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time.” But environmental advocates anticipate the change will expose the 1.1 million Americans who live within three miles of a coal plant that releases chemicals into a public waterway to a greater level of toxic chemicals. Over a decade ago, the EPA was already aware that Americans exposed to coal-ash wastewater have as high as a one in 50 chance of getting cancer from drinking water containing arsenic, a common waste product.