Help us take urgent action to demand environmental justice today by attending and testifying at this upcoming hearing!

Here's what to know: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) federal coal ash rule initially mandated all unlined coal ash ponds nationwide to begin closure by April 2021.

However, in 2020, the Trump administration created a process, known as Part A extensions, allowing plants to request delays if they met specific conditions, including a plan to stop burning coal and to address groundwater contamination.

Despite failing to meet these requirements, utility companies operating 13 unlined, leaking coal ash surface impoundments at 11 coal plants across the country have pending applications for extensions for an additional three years (Oct. 2031). These facilities include the NIPSCO R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, Indiana, as well as the following plants: Baldwin, Newton, and Kincaid in Illinois; Miami Fort in Ohio; Big Cajun II and Brame in Louisiana; Coleto Creek and J. Robert Welsh in Texas; Intermountain in Utah; and Naughton in Wyoming. 

ALL of these coal plants are poisoning groundwater with toxic coal ash, including arsenic, lead, mercury, and radium. At the NIPSCO Schahfer plant in Indiana, which will continue burning coal past its planned retirement date under a federal emergency order due to AI data center demand, there are at least 61 private wells within a one-mile radius of the coal ash ponds. None of these facilities were eligible for deadline extensions, and they're not eligible now!

The EPA is holding an online hearing on these proposed deadline extensions. 

Register at https://www.mobilize.us/jtnwi/event/878430/.