A look at large coal ash spills in the US

The Obama administration on Friday set the first national standards for waste generated from coal burned for electricity, called coal ash, treating it more like household garbage rather than a hazardous material. The Obama announcement ended a six-year effort that began after a massive spill of the ash that contains toxins at a Tennessee power plant in 2008. Since then, the EPA has documented coal ash waste sites tainting hundreds of waterways and underground aquifers in numerous states with ...