Last night, 12 homes across 400 acres of a Tennessee town were damaged after coal ash erupted out of a nearby storage pond.

Today, thirty-nine environmental groups have petitioned Barack Obama to reject Bush’s new rule that will allow coal ash from power plants to be more easily dumped in abandoned mines, despite the known risks of water pollution.

Coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal for electricity, is known to contain such toxins as mercury and arsenic, and is actually 100 times more radioactive than nuclear waste. While storing the waste in old mines does help prevent disasters like the one in Tennessee, the toxins still seep into the groundwater while sitting in the mine.

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