Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is calling on the Obama administration to identify 44 “high-hazard” coal-ash impoundments that EPA is looking at as part of a broad investigation of these facilities:

…I am concerned that the EPA, after consulting with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Homeland Security, has indicated that they cannot make the list of “high hazard” sites public.

We are pursuing whether the handling of these sites is consistent with the handling of other similar facilities, because of the critical importance of the public’s right to know about threats in their communities. If these sites are so hazardous and if the neighborhoods nearby could be harmed irreparably, then I believe it is essential to let people know.

In that way, they can press their local authorities who have responsibility for their safety to act now to make the sites safer.

The text of Sen. Boxer’s statement is here,  and there’s also video of her press conference here and here.

Also see coverage in the Tennessean,  the Huffington Post, and Politico.

Secrecy is nothing new on the coal ash issues, as Coal Tattoo previously reported here.

UPDATE: And as Coal Tattoo recounted back in early May, EPA officials back then refused to release a list of the 44 sites following a House committee hearing.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Coal ash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.