Enviro Groups Threaten to Sue EPA Over Coal Plant Discharge Regs

A coalition of environmental groups says U.S. EPA is 26 years tardy in limiting toxic metal discharges from coal-fired power plants and is threatening to sue the agency if it does produce the rules. Existing federal rules do not limit releases of arsenic, mercury, selenium and lead, pollutants that can leach into local water supplies and contaminate waterways, the groups say. EPA's own data show coal plants release millions of pounds of such pollutants each year. But while federal law requires EPA to review its power-plant discharge rules each year and decide whether to revise them, the agency has not issued a decision since 1982, according to a notice sent today to Administrator Lisa Jackson from the Environmental Integrity Project, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club...NYTimes