A coal ash spill in TN in 2008

today: tell your u.s. senators to protect us from coal ash waste

Please join a nationwide call-in day to tell our U.S. Senators to stand up for clean drinking water and safe communities.  

To find your U.S. Senators’ phone numbers click here. or call the Capitol Switchboard,  202.224.3121

We need our Senators to oppose a bill that would block protections from toxic coal ash waste.

There is no national program for safe disposal of this mess. The recent spill in Wisconsin into Lake Michigan threatens the drinking water for 10 million people.  We all remember the Tennessee spill where coal ash waste destroyed entire neighborhoods.

It takes just a few minutes to get the phone numbers and call upon your senators to oppose this dirty coal ash bill (S.1751). The U.S. House already passed this bill so we need our Senators to hear the message loud and clear.

To find your U.S. Senators’ phone numbers click here. or call the Capitol Switchboard,  202.224.3121

Talking Points for your call:

• Please oppose S. 1751, the “Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act.”
• S.1751 endangers the health and safety of thousands of communities: it will prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from ever controlling coal ash.
• S.1751 is allows coal ash dumps to contaminate drinking water sources with arsenic, lead and other pollution.
• S.1751 will cost American jobs: A recent study by a Tufts University senior economist found that strong coal ash regulations, such as the one proposed by the EPA in 2010, would create 28,000 jobs annually.
• S.1751 fails to address current threats to communities: this bill means more spills like the recent Wisconsin one into Lake Michigan or the 2008 Tennessee spill that destroyed entire neighborhoods.
• Coal ash is hazardous to our health: the cancer risk from drinking water contaminated by arsenic near some coal ash ponds is 1 in 50, which is 2,000 times greater than federal regulations allow.
• Coal ash is a national problem: it is the second largest industrial waste stream in the U.S.