Groundwater Contamination from Texas Coal Ash Dumps

Toxic coal ash pollutants are leaking into groundwater surrounding 100 percent of Texas’s power plants for which data are available, with unsafe levels of arsenic, cobalt, lithium, and other pollutants seeping from the ash dumps, according to an analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).

Industry groundwater monitoring data made publicly available for the first time in 2018 thanks to a new requirement in federal coal ash regulations reveal multiple contaminants leaching from 16 of 16 coal-fired power plants in Texas to which the new rules apply.

EIP’s report, “Groundwater Contamination from Texas Coal Ash Dumps,” with analysis from Earthjustice, concludes that both the fossil fuel industry and Texas regulators have consistently failed to protect Texas groundwater.