FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2026
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Former EPA Experts Warn Proposed Rollback of Coal Plant Wastewater Standards Would Mean Decades More Toxic Water Contamination for Downstream Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Network (EPN), an organization of over 750 former EPA experts, is urging the agency to abandon its proposal to undo critical portions of the 2024 Steam Electric Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs). The new proposal exempts coal-fired power plants from requirements to treat highly toxic drainage water from coal ash ponds and landfills—protections essential to safeguarding downstream communities. By prioritizing industry preferences over the safety of America’s drinking water and fisheries, EPA is allowing tens of millions of pounds of mercury, arsenic, and selenium to continue contaminating our waterways annually. While states retain the authority to require treatment, they have historically not done so.
“EPA is delaying yet again the requirement for steam electric power plants to treat their highly toxic wastewater, which has been contaminating drinking water supplies and fisheries for decades,” said Betsy Southerland, former Director of the Office of Science & Technology in EPA’s Office of Water. “Instead of using EPA’s limited staff and funding on higher priority industry dischargers, the agency instead is conducting a fifth rulemaking allowing steam electric power plants to avoid needed treatment for another 10 years.”
“EPA is years behind its statutory requirement to review and update these guidelines,” the statement continued. “The industry has known for a decade that these toxic limits were coming. Instead, by prioritizing the massive energy demands of AI and data centers over the safety of local communities, the agency is allowing toxic discharges to go untreated for another decade — a clear abdication of its mission to protect public health and the environment.”
EPA’s own proposal acknowledges that unmanaged coal ash wastewater can carry toxic pollutants into rivers, lakes, fish, and drinking water sources, including arsenic, mercury, lead, and chemicals that can make drinking water harder and more expensive to treat. The proposal also recognizes possible harm to wildlife, recreation, downstream drinking water systems, and threatened and endangered species. But instead of fully measuring those risks, EPA counts the money coal plants could save while treating many of the health and environmental harms as unmeasured or uncertain. EPA also chose not to apply its children’s health policy, even though the pollution pathways it identifies involve contaminants that are especially dangerous for babies, children, and pregnant people.
This proposal represents the fifth rulemaking on steam electric power generating ELGs in just 10 years. Since 2015, a cycle of “regulatory ping-pong” has repeatedly moved the goalposts for industry. Plants that were originally required to meet clean water standards by 2023 under Obama-era rules saw those deadlines pushed to 2025 under the first Trump administration, then strengthened for 2029 under the Biden administration. This latest action would push compliance as far back as 2034 — a nearly 20-year delay in addressing a known public health crisis.
In November, former EPA experts — who spent decades implementing the Clean Water Act — disputed the EPA’s justification for the compliance deadline extension in formal comments. EPN warns that those same concerns carry forward to this latest proposal, as the agency continues to rely on a manufactured ‘energy emergency’ to justify rollbacks.Furthermore, they noted that replacing aging coal plants could actually lower costs for consumers.
Key concerns raised by EPN’s expert analysis include:
- Lack of Statutory Authority: EPN argues the EPA lacks the clear authority under the Clean Water Act to extend compliance deadlines based on generalized energy reliability concerns.
- Outdated Technology Assumptions: EPA is failing to account for the rapid growth of renewables, storage, and demand-response technologies, while incorrectly suggesting compliance is infeasible despite the widespread use of zero-discharge treatment.
- Prolonged Public Health Risks: By issuing a fifth rule in ten years to delay standards, EPA is allowing tens of millions of pounds of pollutants — including mercury, arsenic, and selenium — to continue entering waterways every year.
- Economic Miscalculation: EPN warns that these delays will increase long-term costs for consumers and undermine the substantial public health and environmental benefits projected under the 2024 rule.
Mercury and arsenic are among the high-risk substances highlighted in EPN’s recently released Terrible Toxics: A Situation Report and its Hey Neighbor Guide. These resources translate complex regulatory shifts like this wastewater rollback into plain language so the public can understand how agency decisions can increase toxic exposure in drinking water, fish, and communities.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 750 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect Americans’ health.