Troubled coal ash storage sites prompt federal rules
Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, dips her hand into the Dan River in Danville, Va., on Feb. 5 as signs of coal ash appear in the river. Duke Energy estimates that up to 82,000 tons of ash have been released from a break in a 48-inch storm water pipe at the Dan River Power Plant in Eden, N.C. (Gerry Broome / Associated Press)
Coal ash swirls on the surface of the Dan River on Feb. 5 as state and federal environmental officials continued their investigations of a spill of coal ash into the river in Danville, Va. Environmentalists and industry experts widely expect the first federal standards for the waste generated from coal burned for electricity to treat the ash like household garbage, rather than a hazardous material. (Gerry Broome / Associated Press)
Amy Adams, North Carolina campaign coordinator with Appalachian Voices, shows her hand covered with wet coal ash on Feb. 5 from the Dan River swirling in the background, in Danville, Va. (Gerry Broome / Associated Press)
In this Dec. 29, 2008, file image provided by Greenpeace, coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant is shown in Harriman, Tenn., after the dyke at left broke on Dec. 22, 2008. The Obama administration is under court order to unveil the rule Friday, ending a six-year effort that began after the massive spill at the Tennessee power plant in 2008. (Wade Payne / Associated Press)
General Restoration Services workers Lajuana Stranes, left, and Amy Smith salvage items from a home damaged in a coal ash spill on Dec. 31, 2008, in Harriman, Tenn. (J. Miles Cary / Associated Press)
