CHICAGO (AP) — State regulators have ordered the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to respond to proposed regulations on coal ash ponds.
The Pollution Control Board denied a request on Friday to postpone considering new rules for the retention ponds where electric-generating power plants dispose of ash.
IEPA must answer Pollution Control Board questions about coal-ash pond regulation — including federal rules that took effect last month — by March 2016.
IEPA had asked the board to postpone rulemaking because of expected legal and legislative responses to the federal rules. The U.S. EPA’s rules govern construction and maintenance of the ponds to prevent failure and leakage of toxic materials, location of the ponds to protect groundwater, monitoring and record-keeping.
Environmental groups asked the board to review their proposed rules.
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Online: http://www.ipcb.state.il.us/
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