Compliance Assistance Letter to Owners and Operators of Regulated Disposal Units Containing Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR)
In 2015, EPA established national regulations to provide a comprehensive set of requirements for the safe disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCR), commonly known as coal ash, from coal-fired power plants. In addition to technical standards, the regulations require coal ash disposal facilities to develop and maintain a publicly available website containing information on the facilities' actions to comply with the regulations.
In May 2019, EPA initiated a compliance assistance effort to improve facilities’ understanding of the regulations and ensure that the substantive requirements are being implemented. EPA examined the public websites of coal ash disposal facilities. EPA sent a letter to facilities (except those in Oklahoma due to their approved State CCR Permitting Program) requesting them to verify that their public websites contain the information required by the regulations and if not, that they update their websites. The correspondence also provides a summary of the actions that facilities must take and document on their websites to comply with the regulations, which can be found below.