Coal combustion products

Coal combustion products (CCPs), also called coal combustion wastes (CCWs) or coal combustion residuals (CCRs), are categorized in four groups, each based on physical and chemical forms derived from coal combustion methods and emission controls:
Environmental impacts.
The majority of CCPs are landfilled, placed in mine shafts or stored in ash ponds at coal-fired power plants. Groundwater pollution from unlined ash ponds has been a continuing environmental problem in the United States. Additionally some of these ponds have had structural failures, causing massive ash spills into rivers, such as the 2014 Dan River coal ash spill. Federal design standards for ash ponds were strengthened in 2015, although various provisions of the new regulations are on hold as of 2019, pending ongoing litigation and revisions to the regulations.
Recycling.
About 52 percent of CCPs in the U.S. were recycled for "beneficial uses" in 2019, according to the American Coal Ash Association. The chief benefit of recycling is to stabilize the environmental harmful components of the CCPs such as arsenic, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, chromium VI, cobalt, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, thallium, and vanadium, along with dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.