They refused to name the hazardous plants until activists pieced the list together themselves and went public with it.
New companies often send hazardous waste out of their plants because they have not yet invested in on-site treatment equipment, which allows them to recycle some waste.
These are the first national standards to require use of modern control technologies to reduce mercury, arsenic, lead, hydrochloric acid and other hazardous air pollutants from coal plants.
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Fungicides are used to kill fungal spores that infect plants and are potentially hazardous to people who are exposed to them at high levels, according to the National Pesticide Information Center.
Ilya Raskin of Rutgers University says plants can help clean up hazardous waste sites through a process of phytoremediation.
Nowhere is the waste issue more evident than in California, where landmark regulations approved in the 1970s require industrial plants like solar panel makers to report the amount of hazardous materials they produce, and where they send it.
Energy derived from natural gas and coal-fired power plants, for example, creates more than 10 times more hazardous waste than the same energy created by a solar panel, according to Mulvaney.
There are concerns that despite the WEEE Directive - which was finally implemented in 2007 - old televisions and computers containing hazardous substances are still being exported from Europe, and potentially poisoning workers at makeshift recycling plants in Africa and Asia.
Approximately 1, 100 such units at more than 450 existing power plants emit 48 tons of mercury into the air each year, with 11 tons of that deposited on to U.S. soil and waters, says EPA. Those plants also release arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, all of which are considered hazardous and are therefore subject to clean air laws that require those facilities to use modern pollution controls.
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