With the 22 December 2008 collapse of a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) ash pond in Kingston, Tennessee, and the arrival of the Obama administration the following month, the regulatory ground is shifting in regards to coal combustion waste (CCW), the millions of tons of waste left over each year from burning coal for electricity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pursuing a host of initiatives that could directly or indirectly affect the disposition of CCW. States, too, are revisiting their regulations. The goal of these initiatives is to ensure public health; the challenge is to do so without compromising a recycling industry that the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) says keeps about 56 million tons of CCW per year out of the landfilled waste stream.

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