March 12, 2026 - Starting March 30, Wyoming will be taking the leading role in regulating and scrutinizing permitting for disposal of coal-burning byproducts within the state.

Following a multi-year effort by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to take on primacy on the issue, the EPA on Feb. 24 announced its final approval of the DEQ’s proposed partial coal combustion residuals permit program, which the department originally submitted in 2023.

“It’s a really big deal for Wyoming, because the whole point of this is to give states primacy so that they can be in direct control of regulating this industry,” EPA Regional Director Cyrus Western said. “The reality is, Wyoming knows Wyoming best, and Cheyenne will do a much better job regulating these industries in a more effective and efficient way than Washington can.”

According to the EPA statement, the decision makes Wyoming the fifth state to take on the primary regulatory power for CCR materials.

Coal combustion residuals refer to a number of byproducts created by the burning of coal, including fly and bottom ash and boiler slag. If not disposed of properly, these byproducts, which contain a variety of harmful chemicals, can cause serious damage to the local environment and human health via pollution of local water and air.

The EPA statement clarified that the DEQ request did not include seven items required by the EPA. DEQ Director Todd Parfitt said this was due to certain parts of EPA regulations being under internal review by court order, meaning states are only able to apply for partial permit programs until the review is concluded.

The EPA began regulating coal combustion residuals in 2015 through the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act after a spill near Eden, North Carolina, in 2014, which sent 39,000 tons of coal ash into the nearby Dan River. The spill necessitated a massive cleanup operation, with the EPA itself saying the river will never be completely cleared of the contaminants. But federal testing showed the river did not exceed human health screening levels due to the coal ash.

Suzanne Engels, administrator of the DEQ’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Division, said that the department had been in discussions on Wyoming’s regulations regarding CCR since 2015, beginning its rules-making process in 2019 and submitting a request for primacy application to the EPA in 2023.

In August 2025, the EPA had announced that it had determined the DEQ’s application was complete and intended to approve it, saying the department had met the requirements to take primacy for regulating CCR disposal.

The move was met with positive statements from Gov. Mark Gordon and other Wyoming politicians, but criticism from environmental groups, which expressed skepticism of the DEQ’s ability and willingness to regulate the state’s coal industry.

Pointing to the DEQ as the primary facilitator of federal regulations handed down from the EPA in Wyoming, Parfitt and Engels argued that state-run departments were in a better position to craft and enforce regulations within Wyoming, having done so going back to the 1970s, long before the 2015 rules were crafted.

They said the state has some additional requirements already in place on top of the EPA’s own standards.

“The states implement the vast majority, over 90%, of environmental regulations that come out of EPA, and the reason for that is that we have a better understanding of the local conditions,” Parfitt said. “We have a better connection with the local community leaders, and we can act more quickly than EPA.”

“We will provide better protection to the environment, because we’re closer to the facilities, and we’ve been doing it for a very, very long time,” Engels said. “We have the resources to do it, and we have the qualified people in the programs that can look out for the interests of the people in the state.”

Speaking on the EPA’s role in the new arrangement, Western said that the EPA still conducts regular audits of state agencies to ensure compliance with federal standards, but he said he’s confident in Parfitt and DEQ to take up the authority.

“He has a very competent and capable staff,” Western said. “We have had a lot of conversations with them on the topic, they submitted a very strong application, and that’s why it was approved. It was fully compliant, and we are extremely confident in the Wyoming DEQ and their technical staff to ensure that they are regulating this properly and effectively.”