Environmentalists are beginning to oppose Trump’s coal ash rollbacks

Cassel has been working to protect people from coal ash for 15 years and said the rains and storms associated with climate change have increased the risk. And those who live near coal ash, he said, continue to get cancer at a rate that makes them think, “This can’t be unusual.”

“EPA, you know the history,” Cassel said. “You made a record.”

Kristina Zierold, a professor at the University of Mississippi, said she found that children exposed to coal ash were more depressed and did less well in school than children not exposed.

Zierold said he has been researching the health effects of coal ash on children since 2011 and was awarded a National Institutes of Health grant in 2015 to research coal ash and neurobiological health in children ages 6 to 14.

He and his research team used air pollution and dust samples from children’s homes to collect coal ash and test children for neurobehavioral and psychiatric disorders in several ways.

If a child doesn’t do well in school, that can have negative consequences later in life, Zierold said. Depression in children can lead to social isolation, learning disabilities, and sometimes suicide, he said.

“Do you want your children to play on coal ash in parks and playgrounds?” Zierold asked. “Do you want him to breathe in and swallow?

Brianna Knisley, director of energy campaigns at Appalachian Voices, said the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill was one of the worst disasters in US history. It’s an example of what happens when the EPA leaves coal ash management to state regulators and utilities, he said.

The 900 workers who cleaned up the spill were denied protective gear and told the coal ash they were removing was safe to eat. Hundreds of workers have been sickened and many have died, Knisley said.

Aerial view of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Cumberland Fossil Plant in Cumberland City, Tenn.

Angie Mummaw, an organizer with Appalachian Voices who lives near the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee, said she’s tired of communities like hers being victimized when coal companies ask for permanent landfills instead of cleaning up the waste they’ve created.

Knisley has worked with communities where coal ash was used to fill children’s soccer fields and watched the Tennessee Valley Authority destroy piles of toxic ash that had piled up behind a playground, open to the wind. The Tennessee Valley Authority did not immediately respond to questions from Inside Climate News.

“This is coal ash management without government regulation and enforcement,” Knisley said. “Governments and subsidies do not protect communities.”

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