An aerial view of Plant Scherer in Juliette. (File photo)
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee put off voting Wednesday on a bill to tighten monitoring requirements for ash generated by coal-burning power plants.
With time running out on this year’s General Assembly session, the decision by the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee to table House Bill 647 puts the measure’s fate in doubt.
The bill, which the state House of Representatives passed overwhelmingly early this month, would require groundwater monitoring at ash ponds that have been closed to continue for 50 years after the closure is completed. A bill the House passed last year that didn’t make it through the Senate would have limited the monitoring to 30 years.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water. Long-term exposure has been linked to a variety of cancers.
Atlanta-based Georgia Power has been working since 2015 on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at 11 power plants across Georgia to meet both state and federal regulations for handling coal ash. While the utility plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 of those ponds, the other 10 are to be closed in place.
The bill got some pushback Wednesday from Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, who called it both costly and unnecessary. He said the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has the power to step in and order the cleanup of any groundwater contamination from a closed ash pond, with or without legislation from the General Assembly.
“Why are we trying to codify something EPD already has the power to do?” Ginn asked. “It’s not going to make it any safer.”
“I just feel like it’s a safety issue … looking to the safety in the future of our children and grandchildren,” answered state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, the bill’s chief sponsor.
On the other hand, Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, suggested strengthening the bill by requiring holders of ash pond permits from the state to “control, minimize or eliminate” seepage from closed ponds into groundwater, storm water or the atmosphere.
Legislative Democrats have been pushing since last year to require Georgia Power to install liners for the 10 ponds that are being closed in place to prevent contamination of drinking water supplies serving communities near the plants.
The utility is being sued by residents of Juliette who claim coal ash stored in an unlined pond at nearby Plant Scherer has contaminated groundwater around the site.
“We want to make sure these containment systems protect from water seepage from the side and the bottom,” Jackson said.
Committee Chairman Tyler Harper, R-Ocilla, wouldn’t allow Jackson to propose her amendment because she had missed the 24-hour deadline under committee rules to present amendments to the chairman.
However, further changes are expected in the bill. Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, is preparing a Senate substitute to Smith’s House bill, the reason the legislation was tabled.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation Friday tightening monitoring requirements for ash generated by coal-burning power plants.
But the 161-2 vote came despite concerns some House Democrats expressed over the way the state regulates coal ash ponds.
House Bill 647, which now moves to the state Senate, would require groundwater monitoring at ash ponds that have been closed to continue for 50 years after the closure is completed. A bill the House passed last year that didn’t make it through the Senate would have limited the monitoring to 30 years.
Coal ash contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water. Long-term exposure has been linked to a variety of cancers.
Atlanta-based Georgia Power has been working since 2015 on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at 11 power plants across Georgia to meet both state and federal regulations for handling coal ash. While the utility plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 of those ponds, the other 10 are to be closed in place.
For the most part, minority Democrats voted for the bill Friday in the Republican-controlled House. But several complained that Georgia Power is not being required to liners for the 10 ponds that are being closed in place to prevent contamination of drinking water supplies serving communities near the plants.
The utility is being sued by residents of Juliette who claim coal ash stored in an unlined pond at nearby Plant Scherer has contaminated groundwater around the site.
Contamination from coal ash also has turned up on property offsite from Georgia Power’s Plant McDonough in Cobb County.
Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, said the state’s disposal requirements for coal ash are less stringent than for disposal of household garbage, which must be stored in lined landfills.
“An estimated 92 million tons [of coal ash] are being stored in Georgia in unlined ponds,” she said. “These toxic substances can seep into groundwater or flow into streams and cause disastrous contamination.”
“Lengthening the monitoring period acknowledges there is a problem with capping storage [ponds] rather than removing and excavating the material,” added Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates.
But Rep. Timothy Barr, R-Lawrenceville, who chairs the House subcommittee that reviewed the bill this week, said both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division classify coal ash as a “non-toxic” waste.
“Emotionally, we don’t do what we feel is right but look to the science,” he said. “The EPA and EPD are the experts.”
An aerial view of Plant Scherer in Juliette. (File photo)
ATLANTA – Legislation increasing groundwater monitoring requirements for closed coal ash ponds drew support in the General Assembly Tuesday from Democrats and environmental advocates.
But both groups argued it wouldn’t go far enough to protect the drinking water of Georgians who live near the ponds from toxic contamination.
“Even though this is a good bill, I still think we need the added protection of a clay base and liner … before we lose more people to illness,” Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, said shortly before the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee approved the measure and sent it on to the full House.
Coal ash, generated by burning coal at power plants, contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water. Long-term exposure has been linked to a variety of cancers.
Since 2015, Georgia Power has been working on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at 11 power plants across Georgia to meet both state and federal regulations for handling coal ash. While the Atlanta-based utility plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 of those ponds, the other 10 are to be closed in place.
A substitute version of House Bill 647 the committee passed Tuesday would require groundwater monitoring at those closed ash ponds to be conducted for 50 years after closure is completed, up from 30 years under the original bill.
“I have a seven-month-old grandson,” Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, the bill’s chief sponsor, explained when asked why he decided to increase the monitoring period.
Permits the state Environmental Protection Division issues to close ash ponds require not only groundwater monitoring but proper drainage and a cap on the pond, said Chuck Mueller, chief of the EPD’s Land Protection Branch.
But April Lipscomb, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said a cap is not protective enough. She said some of the ash ponds Georgia Power plans to close in place are “sitting in groundwater” despite the presence of a cap.
“We’re really concerned with what is going to happen 30 years from now when these coal ash ponds really start causing problems,” Lipscomb said.
Tuesday’s hearing on Smith’s bill included testimony from residents of Juliette, where Georgia Power faces a lawsuit claiming coal ash stored in an unlined pond at nearby Plant Scherer has contaminated groundwater around the site.
Michael Pless of Juliette called the bill “a starting place” but not strong enough.
“Putting a cap in is better than doing nothing,” he said. “But it falls far short of the safest option: to remove the coal ash and cap it in a lined facility.”
Michael Petelle, a retired science teacher from Marietta, expressed similar concerns about the area surrounding Georgia Power’s Plant McDonough in Cobb County, where contamination from coal ash has turned up offsite from the property.
“Testing alone is not the only solution,” he said. “This contamination would not occur if the ash was fully contained within a lined landfill.”
Chris Manganiello, water policy director for the environmental advocacy group Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, urged members of the legislature’s Republican majority to give a hearing to a bill sponsored by Buckner that would require storing coal ash in lined landfills.
But Smith said even lined landfills are not a guarantee.
“Liners are good if they never, ever have a default or deterioration,” he said. “But one small pinhole or a crack and you lose what you’re supposed to be doing.”
An aerial view of Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer (File photo)
ATLANTA – A lawyer for the Sierra Club asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge Monday to prohibit Georgia Power from passing on $525 million in coal ash cleanup costs to its customers.
But lawyers for the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) and Georgia Power argued the Atlanta-based utility fully justified both its cleanup plan and the costs of that work during hearings before the PSC last year.
Robert Jackson, the lawyer representing the Sierra Club, asked Judge Shukura Millender to declare the pollution of groundwater by Georgia Power’s ash ponds at 11 coal-fired power plants “unlawful,” or at least “unreasonable and imprudent.” Such a ruling would disqualify the company from recovering the costs of the cleanup from ratepayers, he said.
“Georgia Power has coal ash sitting in groundwater at plants Bowen, Hammond, Scherer, Wansley and Yates,” Jackson said. “If it had complied with Georgia environmental law, these expensive environmental remediation costs could have been avoided.”
Georgia Power is working on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at the 11 power plants to meet federal regulations for handling coal ash, which contains toxic chemicals that can pollute drinking water supplies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cracked down on pollution from ash ponds in 2015 after a massive spill at a plant in Tennessee.
The PSC signed off on Georgia Power’s coal ash cleanup proposals In July 2019 as part of its latest Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), an update of plans for meeting the state’s energy needs the utility submits every three years. The commission then followed up on that vote late last year by incorporating the costs of the cleanup in a rate increase for Georgia Power.
Jackson argued Monday that the PSC decided to allow Georgia Power to pass on those costs to customers without any evidence that they were incurred lawfully or reasonably.
But Dan Walsh, a lawyer representing the PSC, said Georgia Power justified those costs during last year’s proceedings before the commission. In bringing the issue to court, the Sierra Club is essentially seeking to relitigate the case, he said.
“The evidence Georgia Power presented of the costs it would incur … were sufficient to justify permitting cost recovery [from customers],” Walsh said. “By arguing the evidence relied upon by the commission is inadequate, the Sierra Club is asking the court to second guess the commission on the weight it afforded to the evidence.”
Tom Reilly, the lawyer representing Georgia Power, dismissed the Sierra Club’s argument that the company has acted unlawfully in its disposal of coal ash. Neither the EPA nor the Georgia Environmental Protection Division have accused Georgia Power of breaking the law, and there are no pending enforcement actions related to coal ash, he said.
“If the Sierra Club had an issue about the activities being undertaken and whether they were insufficient and improper, it should have made the argument in the IRP,” Reilly said.
Jackson said none of the voluminous testimony filed in last year’s proceedings dealt directly with Georgia Power’s request to make customers pick up the tab for the coal ash cleanup.
“These plans are draft remediation plans for what Georgia Power plans to do when it closes these coal ash ponds,” he said. “None of these documents say anything about whether it’s just or reasonable or prudent to pass these costs on to their ratepayers.”
Judge Millender said she would take the various parties’ arguments under advisement and issue a written ruling.
An aerial view of Plant Scherer in Juliette. (File photo)
ATLANTA – Legislation requiring all coal ash in Georgia to be stored in lined landfills died in this year’s General Assembly session without so much as a committee vote.
But the bill’s backers are vowing to reintroduce it this winter, citing among other things a lawsuit filed by residents of the small community of Juliette alleging an ash pond at Georgia Power’s coal-burning Plant Scherer nearby is polluting their drinking water.
“There will definitely be a continuing discussion on coal ash,” said Georgia Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, a cosponsor of this year’s bill and one of the Democrats who will assume leadership on the issue from House Minority Leader Bob Trammell, D-Luthersville, who lost his bid for re-election earlier this month. “It’s a front-burner issue.”
Coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal at power plants, contains contaminants including mercury, cadmium and arsenic that can pollute groundwater and drinking water as well as air.
Georgia Power has been working on a multi-year plan to close all 29 of its coal ash ponds at 11 power plants across the state to meet federal regulations for handling coal ash as well as a stricter state rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clamped down on pollution from ash ponds in response to a 2008 spill of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash at a plant near Kingston, Tenn., that smothered about 300 acres of land.
While Georgia Power’s plan calls for removing the ash from 19 ponds and closing the other 10 ponds in place, environmental groups are calling for the Atlanta-based utility to excavate all 29 ponds.
Fletcher Sams, executive director of Altamaha Riverkeeper, cites Georgia Power’s Plant Branch near Milledgeville as an example. The ash pond there was originally scheduled to be closed in place, but Georgia Power later decided to excavate it.
“All we’re asking for is the same thing that happened at Plant Branch,” said Sams. “There’s no justification for leaving half of this ash in groundwater while you’re excavating the rest.”
Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said the company decides whether to excavate an ash pond or close it in place on a case-by-case basis.
“Federal and state rules specify two approved methods for closing ash ponds, closure in place and closure by removal, with the EPA determining both options are safe and protective of the environment,” he said.
The General Assembly took some action on coal ash during the 2020 legislative session.
Lawmakers passed a bill increasing the fee for landfills receiving coal ash from $1 per ton to $2.50, matching fees charged for other items. The measure was intended to discourage an influx of coal ash being transported to Georgia from power plants in surrounding states.
Another bill tightens rules requiring Georgia Power to give advance notice before it carries out plans to dewater ash ponds in preparation for closure.
“The increase of the fee for dumping coal ash in a landfill was a positive step,” Oliver said. “But we didn’t pass any bills related to cleanup.”
Trammell’s bill requiring coal ash to be stored in lined landfills failed to gain traction in the legislation despite lobbying by a group of Juliette residents who brought their contaminated water with them in jugs to the state Capitol last February as the measure was being considered.
The residents subsequently filed a lawsuit during the summer claiming the storage of coal ash in an unlined ash pond at Plant Scherer has contaminated groundwater around the site.
Sams said Georgia Power’s plan for closing the ash pond in place would leave concentrated ash in an area where it would be subject to infiltration from a creek.
“You’re going to have a creek moving through the waste footprint in perpetuity,” he said. “It’s going to cause an issue. We don’t know when, but it’s going to cause an issue.”
Georgia Power officials have called the lawsuit without merit and vowed to defend the utility against the residents’ allegations.
Kraft said nothing above a state or federal drinking water standard has been shown leaving the company’s property.
Meanwhile, a second lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club set for a hearing in Fulton County Nov. 23 is challenging a decision by the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to let Georgia Power recover $619 million from customers to pay for its coal ash cleanup program.
“GPC [Georgia Power] customers cannot be required to pay for GPC’s coal ash cleanup because the cleanup is needed because of GPC’s imprudent, unreasonable and unlawful coal ash handling,” the Sierra Club declared in a legal brief filed Oct. 30.
Georgia Power argues its costs for cleaning up the ash ponds are reasonable, citing the PSC’s vote to approve those costs as part of a rate increase the commission granted the utility late last year.
