"Coal Ash Pollution Case To Be Heard By Federal Appeals Court"

"RICHMOND, Va. — A legal battle over the storage of more than 3 million tons of coal ash in Virginia is headed to a federal appeals court in a case closely watched by environmentalists and energy companies.

The case pits the Sierra Club against the state’s largest electric utility, Dominion Energy.

A federal judge ruled last year that arsenic is illegally flowing from one of the sites where the utility stores coal ash — the heavy metal-laden byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity — and is polluting surrounding waters.

U.S. District Judge John Gibney Jr. found that Dominion had violated the U.S. Clean Water Act, but he did not impose civil penalties, saying the discharge from a retired power plant in Chesapeake does not pose a threat to human health or the environment.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments Wednesday."

Denise Lavoie reports for the Associated Press March 19, 2018.