A pile of toxic coal ash as high as 20-25 feet lays in an inlet approximately one mile from the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston Fossil Plant retention pond after a large coal ash spill in December 2008. The ash pile stretched for two miles along the inlet, which empties into the Emory River. (Brian Stansberry, December 27, 2008.)

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson announced today a proposal to regulate coal ash and its disposal. Jackson said the agency will allow for 90 days of public comment before deciding whether to regulate the material in the hazardous waste section, or the non-hazardous waste section, of the federal Resource Recovery and Conservation Act.

Jackson's announcement comes 16 months after a large ash spill sent 1.1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash into a community and contaminated the Emory River at Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Plant near Knoxville, Tenn.

Coal ash is a toxic waste product from coal-burning power plants which contains hazardous substances such as lead, arsenic, mercury, selenium, boron, zinc, thallium and chromium. It has long been associated with severe human health issues.

From the recent Huffington Post article Even The Cows Have Cancer: EPA Weighs Tougher Regulation of Toxic Coal Ash

Elisa Young says she has lost at least six neighbors to cancer in the last ten years.

"I've lost neighbors to lung cancer who have never smoked," she said. "I've lost them to brain cancer, breast, throat, colon, multiple myeloma, pre-leukemia. When my son, who's in his 20s, came home to visit, he said, 'Mom, is it normal for your mouth to taste like metal?' We pulled over and he coughed until he got sick."