FirstEnergy - Clean up Your Toxic Coal Sludge in PA!
- by: Sierra Club
- recipient: Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
In July, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) told FirstEnergy that their site for disposing of toxic coal ash must be shut down by 2016. In the suit filed against the utility, PA DEP said the site, a 1700-acre unlined lagoon of coal sludge and chemicals called "Little Blue Run," represented "imminent and substantial endangerment" to human health and the environment.
FirstEnergy has been endangering the health the community for years. Without a timeline for this dump and its toxic leakages to be cleaned up, FirstEnergy could be putting them at risk for many years more. FirstEnergy needs to be held accountable -- not only for shutting down this toxic dump, but cleaning it up as soon as possible.
Tell the PA DEP that FirstEnergy needs a deadline for cleaning up the pollution at Little Blue.
RE: Little Blue Run consent agreement
Dear PA Department of Environmental Protection,
I would like to thank PADEP for taking enforcement action to close FirstEnergy's Little Blue Run, and protect the nearby communities and the environment.
However, although FirstEnergy is required to submit a plan to clean up pollution, the consent decree does not expressly require FirstEnergy to clean up the pollution within a specified time period. The community living near this massive, polluting site deserves a complete cleanup as soon as possible -- not many years from now.
FirstEnergy's Little Blue Run is discharging toxics like selenium and boron into the Ohio River and its tributaries at levels that harm aquatic life, yet the consent decree does not address these violations of the Clean Water Act or require FirstEnergy to take specific actions to clean up these discharges.
I urge Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to require a cleanup of Little Blue Run's discharges of toxic pollution.
