The state of Georgia has the go-ahead from the federal government to regulate coal ash, a byproduct from burning coal for electricity that can contain contaminants such as chromium, boron and mercury.
The Environmental Protection Agency rolled out national coal ash rules in 2015, after disastrous spills in North Carolina and Tennessee.
Before those federal rules, coal ash, described by the EPA as one of the largest types of industrial waste in the country, was unregulated. Utilities would mix the ash with water and store it in large open pits, often without any lining between it and the ground beneath it.
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