Dam Owner Responsibilities

Coal Ash Dams Poorly Regulated

Coal ash dams in Indiana are not required to have Incident and Emergency Action Plans. Indiana also does not provide statutory authority for inspections by DNR Division of Water Dams & Levees branch engineers. Many coal ash dams in Indiana are HHP, as documented in recent years by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the 2011 "State of Failure" report by Earthjustice and the Appalachian Mountain Advocates. That report states that Indiana ranks sixth in production of coal ash, with 71 ash ponds (more than any other state), and only 11 percent were inspected by dam safety officials in recent years. Less than one-half of the 71 ash dams have been given hazard classifications (4 are HHP or SHP), and 25 of the 41 coal ash dams inspected by EPA were given a "poor" rating for structural integrity.

The State of Failure report further noted:

State regulations could hardly be worse. First, there are shockingly few requirements for ensuring dam safety in Indiana, including no requirement that the dam be designed by a professional engineer, no requirement to inspect dams, no reporting requirements, no inundation mapping, no emergency plans required, and no bond requirements.

Similarly, state law fails to protect drinking water and surface water from the leaching of toxic chemicals from ash. Indiana regulations do not require groundwater monitoring or composite liners at all ponds and landfills, nor do the regulations prohibit dumping directly into the water table. In fact, state regulators are clear in their opposition to such common-sense protections. In 2010, the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management denied that coal ash shares the "harmful characteristics" of other types of hazardous waste, and he urged EPA to weaken its proposed subtitle D standards to allow coal ash to be placed below the water table.39 The eight contaminated sites in Indiana, including the poisoning of an entire town's drinking water aquifer, the large ash pond spills, and the 25 ponds with "poor" ratings are the direct result of the state's lax oversight.

The report cited two coal ash incidents in Martinsville, Indiana. On February 14, 2007, internal and external levees breached at the Indianapolis Power and Light's Eagle Valley Generating Station, resulting in a discharge of 30 million gallons of coal ash sluice liquid to the White River. On January 30, 2008, a second breach occurred at the 52-year-old earthen dam resulting in another 30 million gallon discharge of coal ash sludge to the White River. None of the released ash was recovered. In addition, the report noted that after two spills at the R.M. Shafer Power Station, contaminated groundwater has been documented at eight sites, including in the Town of Pines, which has been designated a Superfund site.