A coastal environmental group filed suit Monday, trying to block a decision by Alabama Power Co. to leave millions of tons of coal ash along a riverside in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, where opponents say a spill could devastate a huge ecosystem.
The company contends however that it is following all applicable laws and standards. Saying, “On April 17, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a final rule for management and disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) from electric utilities. In 2018, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management issued its state CCR rule, which closely tracks the federal rule.”
The federal lawsuit by Mobile Baykeeper was filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which announced plans to sue the electrical utility in July.
The group wants to force Alabama Power to give up what it contends is an illegal plan to permanently leave more than 21 million tons (19 metric tonnes) of coal ash in an unlined pit at Plant Barry, located north of Mobile along the Mobile River.
Environmentalists argue the ash pond is polluting groundwater and could destroy a verdant, biologically diverse region should it be breached by heavy flooding, a hurricane, or some other disaster.
“Plant Barry is the only coal ash lagoon of a major utility left in a low-lying coastal area of the Southeast that is not already cleaned up or on track to be recycled or removed to safe storage, away from waterways,” Barry Brock, director of the law center’s Alabama office, said in a statement.
Alabama Power did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit, filed in Mobile. It previously declined comment on the group’s plan to sue though it has issued the following details on its website:
Closing Ash Ponds Safely and Permanently
- The company is treating and removing all water from the pond.
- Material will be excavated and moved farther away from waterways, creating buffers of up to 750 yards from the Mobile River – a distance in some places longer than seven football fields.
- The size will be reduced by 267 acres, or about 45 percent.
- Using advanced engineering, Alabama Power will construct a redundant dike system as part of the plant’s increased, robust flood-protection measures.
- In addition to the redundant dike system, Alabama Power will construct a subsurface retaining wall around the entire consolidated footprint to provide further groundwater protection. The site benefits from a unique, natural solid clay layer that extends up to 28 feet below the ash pond. The retaining wall will extend below ground and tie into the clay layer to effectively seal the material in place.
- Additionally, an internal drainage system will be constructed around the perimeter of the consolidated footprint to accelerate the removal of water.
- The company will install a specially engineered barrier over the material to keep it safely in place.
- Storm water systems will be added to manage rainwater runoff.
- Alabama Power will monitor groundwater around the facility for at least 30 years to ensure ongoing protection of water quality.
Plant Barry opened in 1965 about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Mobile. With federal regulators imposing tougher rules on storing coal ash, Alabama Power has been working for several years to close the roughly 600-acre (243-hectare) pond in the process detailed above which includes drying it out, moving material to a smaller site nearby, and covering it with a liner.
The company contends moving the material farther away from the plant site would pose a hazard in itself.
Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
