Nine conservation groups sued EPA on Monday over the agency’s move to weaken standards on water pollution emanating from coal-fired power plants.
The lawsuit, filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges EPA’s decision, issued last month, to alter the 2015 Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG), which require plants to use modern, affordable wastewater treatment technologies widely used in other industries.
It allows plants more time to reduce their wastewater pollution, extending the deadline for compliance by two years to the end of 2025. Plants can also use cheaper pollution-control technologies to remove toxic chemicals and heavy metals from wastewater if they are scheduled to retire by 2028. The agency’s revisions are expected to save utilities about $140 million each year.
“This absurd step backward is little more than a gift to the dirty fossil fuels industry at the expense of people’s health, endangered wildlife and water quality,” Hannah Connor, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Many power plants could easily adopt affordable technologies that dramatically reduce toxic discharges, but with this rule, the EPA is telling their polluter friends not to bother with these common-sense measures.”
Joining the Connor’s group in the lawsuit are Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Water Action, Environmental Integrity Project, Natural Resources Defense Council, PennEnvironment, Prairie Rivers Network, Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance.
“This administration’s dangerous decision to give coal power industry lobbyists what they want will not stand without a fight,” said Earthjustice’s Thomas Cmar, one of the attorneys who filed the suit on behalf of the groups. “We’re working with our partners to stop hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants from contaminating sources of drinking water, lakes, rivers and streams each year.”
In response to an emailed request for comment, an EPA spokesperson told RTO Insider that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.