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Don't Let EPA Transfer Coal Ash Permits While Groundwater Rules Are Being Gutted
Final signature count: 552
552 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: The Rainforest Site
Coal ash containing arsenic, lead, and mercury has reached Wisconsin groundwater. Now EPA is proposing to transfer permitting authority to the state while weakening federal baseline protections.
Every year, U.S. power plants produce more than 100 million tons of coal ash — the residue left behind after burning coal for electricity. That ash carries arsenic, lead, mercury, chromium, and selenium at concentrations high enough to poison drinking water when storage ponds and landfills leak into the ground.2 And in Wisconsin, that isn't a future scenario. It's already happening. Earthjustice has identified multiple sites across the state where coal ash has reached local groundwater at levels that raise serious public health concerns.3
Despite the chemical profile of this waste, federal law has never classified coal ash as hazardous. The utility industry successfully blocked that designation for decades, leaving ash storage sites under a weaker regulatory framework — and giving polluters far more latitude than communities near those sites can afford.2
Federal Protections Are Being Rolled Back
The strongest national coal ash rules ever enacted — requiring groundwater monitoring, cleanup when contamination is detected, and public access to data — were established under the Obama administration and reinforced under Biden. In April 2026, EPA moved to weaken several of those protections. The proposed changes would allow contamination at some sites to continue without triggering cleanup obligations,6 and give utilities more flexibility on timelines and compliance requirements.5 Critics across the environmental and public health community have warned that the rollback puts drinking water sources at risk in communities across the country.4
Wisconsin Wants to Run Its Own Program — Right Now
In September 2026, EPA proposed approving Wisconsin's application to administer its own coal ash permitting program, replacing direct federal oversight with state-level control.1 A public comment period on that proposal is now open.7
The timing creates a serious problem. If Wisconsin's program is approved while federal baseline standards are being dismantled, state residents could end up with weaker groundwater monitoring, reduced cleanup requirements, and fewer tools for holding polluters accountable — not because Wisconsin chose weaker rules, but because the floor dropped during the approval process.
Effective coal ash oversight depends on three elements working together: real-time groundwater monitoring that catches contamination before it spreads, enforceable cleanup obligations that compel action when pollution is found, and transparent public access to data so communities can see what is happening beneath their feet. Remove any one of those, and contamination can advance for years before anyone with authority to stop it even learns it's there.
EPA Must Verify Protections Before Handing Over Authority
This is not a routine bureaucratic transfer. It is a decision with direct consequences for families who drink well water near ash ponds, for children in communities that have already seen contamination documented in their backyards, and for everyone in Wisconsin who depends on clean groundwater.3
EPA has the authority — and the obligation — to verify that Wisconsin's program includes rigorous monitoring, binding cleanup requirements, and genuine public transparency before any federal authority changes hands.1,7
Sign the petition now to demand that EPA protect Wisconsin's groundwater — and refuse to transfer permitting authority until those protections are proven to be real.
