We must pass SB 412 and HB 1335 now to safeguard our lives and livelihoods

In a major development for the working families of Indiana, less than 24 hours after the EPA ruled utilities across the country must clean up the contamination they caused through decades of coal ash dumping and neglect, two new bills focusing on this urgent issue launched in the 2022 Indiana General Assembly: Senate Bill 412: Regulation of Coal Combustion Residuals, introduced by Senators Rodney Pol (D-D4) and Susan Glick (R-D13) and House Bill 1335: Closure of Coal Combustion Residual Impoundments, introduced by Representatives Pat Boy (D-D9) and co-sponsored by Maureen Bauer (D-D6). These bills ensure economic benefits for the state and must pass this session to remove dangerous toxins from our community water supply. 

THE NEED TO ACT NOW:

This EPA ruling is an environmental justice win for our nation. However, it’s not an excuse for Indiana legislators to remain idle as Indiana has the most toxic coal ash waste pits in the country. The majority of these sites are leaking, in contact with groundwater, and located in a floodplain. Carcinogens from coal ash: mercury, arsenic, molybdenum, thallium, and more, leach into drinking water supplies, lakes, and rivers, rendering much of the state’s groundwater unfit for human consumption. Complete clean closures advocated by these bills remove coal ash from the floodplain: the only real solution to this toxic hazard. Just ask residents of the Town of Pines, where NIPSCO’s coal ash contaminated their well water, or Michigan City, where decades of coal ash dumping have led to an emergency along the Lake Michigan shoreline where a decomposing seawall holding back the ash may rupture at any time. 

WHY IS STATE LEGISLATION ON COAL ASH SO IMPORTANT? 

SB 412 and HB 1335 serve as vital buffers against the fluctuations in coal ash rulings at the federal level and must be passed to protect the health of Indiana’s economy, communities, and environment. The EPA is subject to the winds of politics, changeable with each new administration. The Trump administration gutted the agency, which rolled back Obama-era laws on safe disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR’s, or coal ash), giving industry the green light to pollute with impunity. It’s good news now that the Biden administration is addressing this emergency. However, these new rules are not a permanent solution, making the passage of Indiana’s state laws on coal ash imperative. 

WHAT’S IN THE BILLS?

Senate Bill 412 and House Bill 1335 both require vital protections by mandating complete removal of coal ash from sites within a floodplain and/or if there is evidence of groundwater contamination resulting from an improperly lined pit. Both call for the beneficial reuse of coal ash in cement, wallboard, or other permanent solutions. SB 412 includes protections from seismic impact zones or migration possibilities. HB 1335 provides pollution safeguards for excavation and transport situations, institutes a public hearing requirement, requires local labor, and protects ratepayers from the cost of cleanups via rate hikes by the utility. IDEM is mentioned in both bills prohibiting the agency from approving closures that do not match EPA standards. 

The IDEM provision in each bill serves as an essential stopgap and potentially life-saving measure to force utilities to clean up their mess once and for all. It ensures a clean closure method rather than the least expensive closure option of cementing over the coal ash pits (also known as cap-in-place or cap and run), which does nothing to prevent the continued pollution of Indiana’s water from coal ash toxins creating a far larger, costlier mess to clean up later.

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

Our legislators can no longer ignore the obvious long-term economic benefits clean closures provide. According to the Cleaning up Coal Ash for Good Report, an investigative economic case study sponsored by Earthjustice with the support of Just Transition Northwest Indiana and Hoosier Environmental Council, complete clean closures of toxic coal ash waste pits would vastly increase union jobs over ten years, significantly boosting local investment and Indiana’s economy. Once a clean closure is finished, property values and real estate taxes in the vicinity also increase. 

The choice between jobs and the economy or safeguarding health and the environment is a false choice: The good of the economy hinges on the condition of the environment. Indiana legislators should follow their playbook, harken back to the words of former President Ronald Reagan, “It’s the economy, stupid,” and pass SB 412 and HB 1335 for the future well-being of Indiana.