Coal ash dumps lack regulation

Read Shaila Dewan's story in the New York Times. This report comes on the heels of a billion-gallon spill of toxic coal sludge in East Tennessee last month. Here's an excerpt from today's story:

Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.

And here and here are links to other NYT stories about the December spill in Kingston, Tennessee.