In what is being viewed as a huge victory for environmental groups but also for everyone, the EPA is taking long demanded action to keep pollutants from power plant smokestacks out of rivers throughout the US. The new rules will eliminate the current river discharges and protect people and the environment from millions of pounds of metals and other toxins. The two phase ruling will be initially unrolled in July of 2012 with final implementation at the end of January 2014.

As good as the news is many environmental groups such as the Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club have stated that the decision should have been made decades ago when the research was first presented. Releases into the river networks of arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxic pollutants has long been in evidence and many groups have been campaigning long and hard to achieve the results now unfurled. Jennifer Peterson from the EIP added:

“These rules were supposed to have been written nearly 30 years ago—they are not new requirements. Wastewater treatment is affordable, and our waterways are not a dumping ground for toxic waste from coal-fired power plants. We appreciate EPA’s commitment to get these long overdue rules back on track.”

With the EPA now committed to a schedule for better enforcement the continued task of case-by-case evaluations will continue, keeping the responsibility in the hands of officials from each individual state. The ongoing concern is that such existing laws are not applied evenly across the board and have meant that many states have seriously polluted riverways. Many of the toxins and metals have had serious impact to the wildlife along waterways and arsenic and mercury particularly also post added risk to the human population and our ground water supplies.

The positive results from the act will greatly target power plants according to experts, power plants produce more toxic waste than any other single industry in the nation. The administration and better enforcement of the Clean Air Act has resulted in many metals that were previously airborne being flushed into the plant discharges and the disposal process for coal ash. While air quality has certainly improved the problems have thus been transferred to the rivers. The new EPA regulations will ideally provide as much protection to the rivers as the Clean Air Act has provided for the atmosphere. Are you pleased to see these overdue measures now enforced and do you think they go far enough? I’d really like to hear your opinions.