ATLANTA – Environmental advocates are calling into question Georgia Power’s plan for closing ash ponds adjacent to coal-burning power plants.
Jennette Gayer, director of Atlanta-based Environment Georgia, cited a recent decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denying an Ohio utility’s request to leave coal ash at a closed pond in contact with groundwater.
As part of its ash-pond closure plan, Georgia Power is proposing to leave coal ash in contact with groundwater at plants Scherer, McDonough, Yates, and Hammond.
“When cleanup plans that don’t require liners to keep coal ash out of groundwater fail and groundwater testing continues to show contamination, or when the EPA requires cleanup that keeps coal ash out of ground water as they have in Ohio, will ratepayers be asked to contribute more funds?” Gayer asked members of the state Public Service Commission (PSC) Nov. 30 during a hearing on Georgia Power’s request for a rate increase of nearly 12%. “At a minimum, do not commit funds to cleanup that is not permitted.”
Georgia Power’s request to recover $400 million from ratepayers during the next three years for ash pond cleanup is part of a $9 billion multiyear plan. The utility intends to close all 29 of its ash ponds located at 11 coal plants across the state as it reduces its reliance on coal for power generation due to both tighter government regulation and market conditions.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
While Georgia Power plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place, environmental groups are calling for removing ash from all 29 ponds.
The EPA gave the environmentalists’ cause new ammunition last month when the federal agency denied a request from Gavin Power LLC to continue disposing of coal ash in an unlined ash pond at its plant in Cheshire, Ohio.
“For too long, communities already disproportionately impacted by high levels of pollution have been burdened by improper coal ash disposal,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Nov. 18.
“Today’s action reaffirms that surface impoundments or landfills cannot be closed with coal ash in contact with groundwater, ensuring safe water resources for these communities while protecting public health and ensuring a reliable supply of electricity.”
The EPA’s decision in the Ohio case followed an announcement the agency made back in January that it intended to enforce a 2015 rule prohibiting utilities from dumping coal ash from coal-burning power plants into unlined ponds.
Isabella Ariza, a lawyer for the Sierra Club, called attention to the Ohio case while questioning a panel of Georgia Power executives on Nov. 29, the first of two days of hearings before the PSC.
Ariza said the utility’s customers will suffer if Georgia Power moves ahead with its cleanup plan without considering the EPA’s decision in Ohio.
“EPA has stated that leaving coal ash in groundwater does not comply with federal rules,” she said. “Ratepayers will continue paying for ash pond closures that will continue to leave ash in groundwater.”
But Aaron Abramovitz, Georgia Power’s chief financial officer, said the Ohio case changes nothing for Georgia Power.
“I believe that was a specific case in Ohio,” Abramovitz told Ariza. “I don’t think that was … for a broader interpretation.”
“Our ash pond closure plans are, and have been, in compliance with federal and state rules and regulations,” Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft added.
Kraft said Georgia Power is continuing to review the EPA’s January pronouncement.
“While [that] review is ongoing, [Georgia Power] will continue to work with the Georgia [Environmental Protection Division] to ensure our closure plans remain in compliance with these rules,” he said.
The PSC is scheduled to vote on Georgia Power’s three-year rate hike request Dec. 20.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court has declined to take up a legal challenge to Georgia Power’s plan to collect $525 million from customers in coal ash pond closure costs.
The Sierra Club had appealed to the high court after both a Fulton County trial court and the state Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Atlanta-based utility, upholding a 2019 vote by the Georgia Public Service Commission giving Georgia Power the green light on its plan.
Georgia Power plans to spend nearly $9 billion to close all 29 of its ash ponds at 11 coal-burning power plants. The company intends to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
The lawsuit sought to force Georgia Power – rather than its customers – to pay for the cleanup, with the Sierra Club arguing the utility was to blame for the coal ash problem.
“There are people all over the state who have to deal with serious impacts from coal ash in the form of poisoned drinking water and unsafe fishing and recreation,” Charline Whyte, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Georgia, said Friday.
“Now, every Georgia Power customer is picking up some of the tab for a decision that the utility knowingly made for decades.”
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have charged Georgia Power’s decision to leave some of the coal ash in unlined pits in contact with groundwater violates federal clean-water standards.
Lawyers for the utility have countered that the ash pond closure plan complies with federal regulations for ash ponds as well as the more stringent requirements of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Plant Bowen (Photo credit: Georgia Power) ATLANTA – Georgia Power announced plans Wednesday to recycle more than 9 million tons of coal ash stored at Plant Bowen at a pace of about 600,000 tons per year. The largest beneficial use project for coal ash in the...
ATLANTA – Georgia Power’s plan to close in place some of its coal ash ponds violates a federal rule prohibiting ash to be in contact with groundwater, an environmental consultant said this week.
Mark Quarles, a senior consultant with Chicago-based BBJ Group, testified before the Georgia Public Commission (PSC) during three days of hearings on a plan the utility submitted in January outlining the mix of energy sources it intends to rely on for power generation during the next 20 years.
Georgia Power’s 2022 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which is updated every three years, calls for the company to continue phasing out its fleet of coal-burning plants and step up its investment in natural gas and renewable energy.
With the coal plants being retired, the utility plans to spend $9 billion to close all 29 of its ash ponds at 11 coal-burning power plants across Georgia. While ash is be excavated and removed from 19 of the ponds, the other 10 are scheduled to be closed in place.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in January it intends to enforce a 2015 rule prohibiting utilities from dumping ash generated by coal-burning power plants into unlined ponds.
Any pond closures that allow coal ash to be in contact with groundwater violate the federal rule, Quarles testified Thursday.
“Groundwater contamination is common and widespread at [Georgia Power] disposal areas,” he said. “The company commonly built large unlined impoundments in streams.”
Specifically, Quarles cited a 343-acre pond at Plant Wansley in Heard County, which he said contains more than 16 million cubic yards of waste. Another 550-acre pond at Plant Scherer in Monroe County contains more than 15 million cubic yards of waste, he said.
“Improper closures by the company create significant risk to ratepayers and create unnecessary costs for the company,” he said.
Quarles said Georgia Power to its credit decided recently to excavate and remove ash from one of the ponds at Plant Wansley. He said that should serve as a model for other ash ponds.
Brandon Marzo, a lawyer representing Georgia Power at this week’s hearings, said the PSC approved the utility’s plan for closing ash ponds as part of its 2019 IRP.
Under both federal and state rules, closing ponds in place is considered equally protective as excavating and removing the ash, he said.
Marzo also cited a document prepared by the state Environmental Protection Division (EPD) asserting that closing ponds in place in unstable areas is permissible “if recognized and generally accepted engineering practices have been incorporated.”
The Georgia Power lawyer noted the EPD already has approved such a closure plan for an ash pond at Plant Bowen near Cartersville, where a foundation improvement plan was developed to prevent leakage.
But Quarles said the closure plan for Plant Bowen, site of the largest Georgia Power’s largest ash pond, is unique among the utility’s ponds.
Marzo also argued the description Quarles gave of the ash ponds at plants Wansley and Scherer does not represent the most recent information about those sites furnished by the EPD.
“It’s not what the ponds would look like after closure in place is completed,” he said.
The PSC will vote on Georgia Power’s 2022 IRP this summer.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Three Georgia environmental groups are asking an appellate court to let them intervene in a legal effort by a coalition of utilities including Atlanta-based Southern Co. to block a federal crackdown on coal ash ponds.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) has filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to give intervenor status to the Altamaha Riverkeeper, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and the Coosa River Basin Initiative.
The Utilities Solid Waste Activities Group acted after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in January it intends to enforce a 2015 rule prohibiting utilities from dumping ash generated by coal-burning power plants into unlined ponds. The Trump administration had backed away from enforcing the rule.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
The EPA warned it would require utilities to “control, minimize or eliminate” contamination of groundwater from coal ash ponds. At that time, the agency rejected four ash pond closure plans submitted by utilities in the Northeast and Midwest.
The EPA then sent a letter asking the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to review pending coal ash pond closure permits to determine whether they need to be modified or reissued.
Southern subsidiary Georgia Power is in the process of spending an estimated $9 billion to close all 29 of its ash ponds at 11 plants across the state, a $9 billion investment. While the Atlanta-based utility’s plan calls for excavating and removing the ash from 19 of those ponds, the other 10 are to be closed in place.
An executive with Georgia Power disclosed last month that ash from four of those 10 ponds – at Plant Hammond near Rome, Plant McDonough south of Vinings, Plant Yates near Newnan and Plant Scherer near Macon – will continue to be exposed to groundwater after the closures are completed.
“It is long past time that Georgia Power’s risky, leaking coal ash lagoons are cleaned up and that Georgia’s rivers and communities are protected from this threat,” Frank Holleman, a senior attorney with the SELC, said Friday. “By intervening, the groups that protect the Altamaha, Chattahoochee and Coosa rivers will be able to speak up for their rivers and the people who depend upon them.”
Aaron Mitchell, Georgia Power’s director of environmental affairs, told members of the state Public Service Commission during hearings last month the EPA has declared acceptable the utility’s plans to close its ash ponds – both those to be excavated and those to be closed in place.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
