Donald Trump Forgoes Enforcement of Toxic Coal Ash

Washington, D.C. - Today, Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency gave a group of polluters a 33-month extension to clean up coal ash dump sites. This is twice as long an extension as what the EPA had proposed last year.

According to the Sierra Club's Trump Coal Pollution Dashboard, this delay would let coal plants across the country release 325,530 tons more wastewater pollution, including multiple hazardous pollutants, metals, carcinogens, and neurotoxins, which are linked to health conditions like cancer, heart and thyroid disease, reproductive failure, and can inflict permanent brain damage on children.

In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement:

"If ever there were an opportunity to make America healthy again, it'd be by ending the open dumping of toxins like mercury, lead and arsenic that is leaking into our waters. Once again, Donald Trump has put the interests of billionaire polluters before the health of Americans. We the people will suffer now while Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are giving these companies a nearly three-year-long extension to cut corners and delay complying with commonsense coal ash cleanup standards. We will continue to push back against dangerous and reckless decisions like this one, and demand a healthier and cleaner future for Americans."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.