The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it would give utility companies an additional year to begin cleaning up contamination from toxic coal ash landfills across the country.
Coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal in power plants, can contain lead, lithium and mercury. Those toxic metals can pollute waterways and drinking water supplies and have been linked to health effects including cancer, birth defects and developmental delays in children.
The E.P.A.’s move was a victory for utilities that had lobbied the Trump administration to delay the cleanup requirements. But environmentalists warned that it threatened the health of the predominantly poor communities near coal plants nationwide.
Under a rule finalized by the Biden administration last year, utilities had until February 2026 to report to the E.P.A. any contamination from their coal ash landfills. The utilities had until May 2028 to install groundwater monitoring systems and to start drafting plans for cleaning up the contamination.
The E.P.A. said on Thursday that it would extend these deadlines by at least a year, until February 2027 and August 2029, respectively.
“President Trump recognizes that affordable and reliable energy are key to the strength of our nation and to our nation’s energy dominance,” Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, said in a statement. “Today’s actions provide much needed regulatory relief for the power sector.”
The Biden-era rule was part of a settlement between the E.P.A. and environmental groups including the Environmental Integrity Project, the Hoosier Environmental Council and the Sierra Club. The groups were represented by Earthjustice, an environmental law firm.
Lisa Evans, senior counsel at Earthjustice, said that a one-year delay might not seem significant to most people. But, she said, “a year’s time is not irrelevant when you are living next to a coal plant.”
“It’s one more year of hazardous contaminants getting into the groundwater,” Ms. Evans said in a phone interview on Thursday. “And the more chemicals that get into the groundwater, the more difficult and expensive it is to remediate.”
Andrea Goolsby grew up in Juliette, Ga., a small town whose residents sued Georgia Power over its alleged contamination of well water from a coal ash landfill. She said she was outraged by the E.P.A.’s decision.
“I voted for Trump twice, but I didn’t vote for him and his administration to remove protections that keep me and my neighbors safe,” Ms. Goolsby said. She added that the delay “definitely opened my eyes to the way the different parties address environmental issues and regulations that are put in place to protect people.”
In their lawsuit, residents of Juliette said that they had suffered illnesses such as cancer and respiratory diseases because coal ash had leached into their well water from Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer, which produces the most electricity of any coal plant in North America. The two parties settled out of court last year without Georgia Power admitting to any wrongdoing or disclosing any cash payout.
Michelle Bloodworth, chief executive of America’s Power, a coal industry trade group, praised the E.P.A.’s move on Thursday.
“America’s Power supports EPA’s plans to extend the deadlines for certain coal ash requirements,” Ms. Bloodworth said in an email. “These deadline extensions are a helpful step as EPA reforms requirements that are unnecessary for protecting the environment. America’s Power looks forward to working with EPA on this matter.”
A spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group, declined to comment.
In an internal white paper that was circulated in April and reviewed by The New York Times, officials at the Edison Electric Institute wrote that the E.P.A. should delay the groundwater monitoring requirements until August 2029. The group argued that the Biden-era deadline would be difficult to meet because of a shortage of qualified contractors as well as “seasonal weather impacts on the ability to complete field work.”
And in a letter to Mr. Zeldin on Jan. 15 — five days before President Trump’s inauguration — top executives at 10 major utilities said that the Biden administration had exceeded its legal authority with the coal ash rule.
“The new Administration should decline to defend these unlawful rules and should seek their immediate rescission,” the executives wrote. The utilities that joined the letter included Duke Energy, Southern Illinois Power Cooperative, Talen Energy and Vistra.
Representatives for those utilities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Maxine Joselow reports on climate policy for The Times.
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