ATLANTA – The Sierra Club is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to take up its challenge of Georgia Power’s plan to collect from customers $525 million in coal ash pond closure costs.
Both a trial court in Fulton County and the Georgia Court of Appeals have upheld a decision by the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to let the Atlanta-based utility recover a portion of the costs of closing all 29 of its ash ponds at 11 coal-burning power plants across Georgia, nearly $9 billion according to the latest estimate.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
Georgia Power plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place.
Lawyers for the Sierra Club have argued the PSC failed to take into account Georgia Power’s culpability in creating the coal ash problem to begin with, and thus should not be allowed to pass all of those costs onto customers.
“Georgia Power made a decision to cut corners by continuing to store coal ash in unlined pits, disregarding the health and safety of Georgia communities and their waterways,” said Charline Whyte, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Campaign in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. “If the lower court’s ruling is left unchecked, it will leave the door wide open for Georgia Power to continue to flip the bill to its customers for years to come.”
Georgia Power’s lawyers have countered that the utility’s ash pond closure plan complies with federal regulations as well as more stringent state requirements and that the PSC has thoroughly reviewed the cost recovery issue in making its decision.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision allowing Georgia Power to collect from customers $525 million in coal ash pond closure costs.
Monday’s ruling came in an appeal filed by the state chapter of the Sierra Club.
Georgia Power has committed to spending nearly $9 billion in the coming decades on a plan to close all 29 of its ash ponds located at 11 coal-burning power plants across the state, a cost estimate that has been revised upward at least twice from the $7.6 billion the Atlanta-based utility proposed during its 2019 rate case.
The state Public Service Commission voted to allow Georgia Power to recover a portion of those costs from ratepayers after lawyers for the utility argued the closure plan complies with federal regulations for ash ponds as well as the more stringent requirements of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD).
“We continue to strongly disagree with any claims to the contrary,” Georgia Power wrote Tuesday in a prepared response to Monday’s ruling.
“Additionally, the issue of cost recovery was thoroughly discussed and evaluated through Georgia’s open and transparent regulatory process with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), with the PSC’s decision affirmed by the Superior Court of Fulton County and, with Monday’s decision, by the Court of Appeals of Georgia.”
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
Georgia Power plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place.
Thus far, the EPD has held public hearings on closure plans for ash ponds at Plant Hammond near Rome and Plant Bowen near Cartersville. The state agency has yet to act on proposed permits requested by Georgia Power.
Nearly all of those who spoke during the public hearings urged the EPD to reject the permits and require Georgia Power to excavate all of the ponds and remove the ash rather than close them in place. They argued that storing toxic coal ash in unlined pits could lead to contamination of nearby streams and groundwater supplies.
David Rogers, Southeast deputy regional director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, expressed disappointment with the court ruling.
“This decision will raise power bills for communities whose utility costs are already too high,” Rogers said Tuesday. “Georgia Power knowingly stored coal ash unsafely, and should be responsible for paying for that bad decision.”
The EPD’s permitting program for ash ponds due to be closed in place requires post-closure care for 30 years, including ongoing maintenance of the cover and groundwater monitoring. Results from monitoring must be reported at least twice a year and posted on Georgia Power’s website.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly declined to consider legislation introduced by minority Democrats during this year’s legislative session requiring coal ash to be stored in lined landfills.
A bill tightening monitoring requirements for coal ash made it through the state House of Representatives but died in the Georgia Senate.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Georgia Power drew heavy criticism Thursday night over plans to bury more than 20 million cubic yards of coal ash at its Plant Bowen in Bartow County.
“Please don’t gamble with our lives,” Vicki Freeman of Atlanta pleaded during an online public hearing on the proposal. “Mandate that Georgia Power move that coal ash to a safe landfill with a proper liner.”
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division held the online hearing as part of a public comment period that will last until Nov. 15.
Plant Bowen is the nation’s ninth-largest power plant in net generation of electricity, according to Georgia Power. Nine miles southwest of Cartersville, it began operating in 1975 and is bordered by the Etowah River and Euharlee Creek.
Georgia Power wants to install a liner under the plant’s Ash Pond 1 and bury the residual coal ash over a 254-acre area, making it the largest single coal ash site in Georgia, according to the Sierra Club. Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal for electricity.
Almost all of the commenters during the public hearing were concerned over sinkholes that could cause the toxic coal ash to leak into nearby rivers and creeks as well as groundwater supplies.
“I was astonished at its size,” said LaGrange resident Judy Lawrence. “My parents always said, ‘Do something right the first time and you won’t have to do it again.’ Georgia Power hasn’t gotten that message. The company knows the type of land they’re building this on, and they know the risks.”
In 2002, a four-acre-wide sinkhole opened up underneath Plant Bowen that released 2.25 million gallons of coal ash into Euharlee Creek. That spill caused arsenic levels in the creek to spike to levels 120 times higher than federal drinking water standards allow. More sinkholes developed in December 2008.
“Simply lining the coal ash dump will not prevent groundwater contamination,” said Dawn Cason of Powder Springs. “We know the plant rests on unstable terrain. Previous sinkholes have developed. It’s not a matter of speculation but only a matter of time.”
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water.
“It’s like Georgia Power is playing Janga, waiting for this coal ash to topple into our water,” said Atlanta’s Neil Sardana. “It’s incomprehensible this plant is even being considered. It will poison people and put our lives and health at risk. It’s absolutely insane.”
The EPD’s permitting program for ash ponds due to be closed in place requires post-closure care for 30 years, including ongoing maintenance of the cover and groundwater monitoring. Results from monitoring must be reported at least twice a year and posted on Georgia Power’s website.
“What’s troubling is that nothing in either the EPD’s requirements or Georgia Power’s proposal address the instability of this terrain,” said Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman of the Coosa River Basin Initiative. “Thirty years of post-closure maintenance is also insufficient. Thirty years is the same time between the plant’s startup and the first appearance of sinkholes in the area.”
After the public comment period ends, the EPD will respond to comments in writing, post comments on its website and make changes to Georgia Power’s permit based on comments from the public.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The state is moving forward with plans to leave in place coal ash from some of Georgia Power’s closed ash ponds despite objections from neighbors and environmental groups.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has issued a draft permit allowing the Atlanta-based utility to cap one of four ash ponds at Plant Hammond in Floyd County near the Coosa River, leaving the ash in an unlined pit. Ash from the other three ponds will be excavated and removed for storage in a lined landfill.
The Plant Hammond ash pond is the first of 10 around the state Georgia Power plans to close in place. Ash from 19 other ponds will be excavated and removed.
Several factors were considered in deciding which ash ponds to excavate and which to close in place, Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft wrote in an email.
“We have worked with third-party professional engineers and geologists to design our plans on a site-by-site basis considering size, location, amount of material and the geology of the area among other factors,” Kraft wrote. “Each closure design is unique.”
But Georgians who live near ash ponds slated to be closed in place and environmental advocates say all of the ponds should be excavated.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water.
In the case of Plant Hammond, leaving the ash in an unlined pit will cause it to come into contact with groundwater, Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, said Aug. 10 during a public hearing on the draft permit.
“Allowing it to remain in groundwater does not protect the Coosa River or water downstream,” he said. “It should be separated from water.”
Georgia Power is spending an estimated $8.1 billion on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its ash ponds located at 11 coal-burning power plants across the state to comply with federal and state regulations.
The plants – including Plant Hammond – are being retired as the utility reduces its reliance on coal for power generation in order to reach a long-term goal of lower carbon emissions.
Aaron Mitchell, director of environmental affairs for Georgia Power, said the closure-in-place option for ash ponds is one of two authorized by both the EPD and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the other being excavation and removal.
The EPD’s permitting program for ash ponds due to be closed in place requires post-closure care for 30 years, including ongoing maintenance of the cover and groundwater monitoring. Results from monitoring must be reported at least twice a year and posted on Georgia Power’s website.
“It addresses both the federal and state rules and establishes permitting conditions we will comply with to protect the public health and environment,” Mitchell said. “Safe, effective closure is part of our commitment to the community.”
Opponents of closing ash ponds in place point to Juliette as an example of what can happen when ash left in an unlined pond contaminates adjacent groundwater. Residents of that community near Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer are suing Georgia Power over contamination of their drinking water wells.
“Georgia Power is gambling with our public health,” Acworth resident Robert Whorton testified at the Aug. 10 hearing. “I don’t think we should accept toxic coal ash leaching into our groundwater.”
Others who spoke at the hearing warned the decision the EPD makes on the Plant Hammond draft permit likely will set a precedent that will affect the other nine closure-in-place plans Georgia Power will be seeking from the state agency.
The EPD is accepting written public comment on the draft permit through Sept. 10.
An aerial view of Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer (File photo)
ATLANTA – The Sierra Club filed an appeal Friday to a court decision upholding Georgia Power Co.’s plan to collect from customers $525 million in coal ash pond closure costs.
The state Public Service Commission (PSC) gave the Atlanta-based utility permission to pass along those costs as part of Georgia Power’s 2019 rate case. A Fulton County Superior Court judge upheld the commission’s decision late last year.
Georgia Power is spending an estimated $8.1 billion on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its ash ponds located at 11 coal-burning power plants across the state to comply with federal regulations. The utility plans 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.
“Georgia power customers have already paid for the coal being burned – both with their pocketbooks and with their health,” said David Rogers, Southeast deputy regional director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “They shouldn’t have to foot the bill for Georgia Power’s bad business decision decades ago to not properly dispose of this toxic coal ash.”
In a brief submitted to the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Sierra Club argues that Georgia Power failed to explain in the rate case how it would spend the $525 million it requested.
The brief also complains that the PSC approved Georgia Power’s proposal even though the state Environmental Protection Division has yet to issue permits for the ponds slated to be closed.
The costs of cleaning up around 92 million tons of coal ash across Georgia would go up if the PSC later requires the utility to excavate all of the ponds and store the ash in lined landfills, the Sierra Club asserts.
Georgia Power issued the following statement on the case:
“The issue of cost recovery was thoroughly discussed and evaluated through Georgia’s open and transparent regulatory process with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), and the PSC’s decision was affirmed by the Superior Court of Fulton County.
“Georgia Power took early action to quickly and safely begin closing all of our ash ponds, and our closure plans fully comply with the federal Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule as well as the more stringent requirements of the state CCR rule. We strongly disagree with any claims to the contrary.”
The Republican-controlled General Assembly declined to take up legislation introduced by minority Democrats during the recently concluded session requiring coal ash to be stored in lined landfills.
A bill tightening monitoring requirements for coal ash made it through the Georgia House of Representatives but died in the state Senate.
