Floods raise questions about Georgia Power coal ash ponds

Environmentalists are concerned after hurricane damage released coal ash from a Duke Energy steam plant in North Carolina.

The closure of coal ash ponds was brought back to the forefront across the Southeast in the wake of recent flooding in North Carolina.

Flooding of the Neuse River near Goldsboro, North Carolina, is believed to have been responsible for a coal ash spill at Duke Energy’s H.F. Lee steam plant.

Amelia Shenstone, of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the spill “is yet another tragic example of why coal ash must be excavated from pits near waterways.”

Coal-fired electrical plants, like Plant Hammond in Coosa, use the ponds to store ash from burned coal used to create electricity.

The Waterkeeper Alliance in North Carolina claims that fly ash was found in tree branches as high as 7 feet above the river surface.

This week the Southern Environmental Law Center in Atlanta renewed concerns related to Georgia Power’s plan to close all 29 of their coal ash ponds, including Plant Bowen near Euharlee and Plant Hammond.

Georgia Power is expected to submit a final plan for the closure of its coal ash ponds to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday.

While Georgia Power uses the term “impermeable” as it relates to capping and closing the ponds, SELC senior attorney Chris Bowers said his group has questions.

“Do they have assurances that the soil is impermeable? What is the risk of flooding to infiltrate these sites with water?” Bowers asked Wednesday. “If water comes in and fills ponds then it’s going to carry these pollutants out with it.” Georgia Power’s ash pond east of Plant Hammond off Alabama Highway will be capped in place instead of emptied.

An apparent coal ash spill from a pond at Duke Energy Plant H.F. Lee is shown after flooding of the Neuse River near Goldsboro, N.C., related to Hurricane Matthew.

Bowers said the SELC would like to know exactly where the impermeable barriers would be located in relation to the pond.

“Is it going to be a lateral barrier, basically placing a wall around the pond, or do they really mean an impermeable barrier that will seal off the bottom of the pond?” Bowers asked. Photo contributed by Peter Harrison, Matt Starr

Aaron Mitchell, general manager of environmental affairs for Georgia Power, said the cover of the ponds will be more than a cap.

“These will be subsurface, designed specific to each of the ponds where we install these methods,” Mitchell said. “They will be designed to isolate these ponds from

groundwater. No two will be alike.”

Mitchell said he is comfortable that the one pond that will be left and capped at Plant Hammond, which sits near the Coosa River, will be safe from flooding.

“It will be part of the permitting process as would any solid-waste facility that Georgia EPD Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune

requires,” Mitchell said.

Bowers said a better solution is to remove the coal ash and take it to an off-site dry-lined storage area.

Mitchell said three other ash ponds at Plant Hammond will be emptied and the contents would be taken to the disposal facility on Huffaker Road or another appropriately permitted disposal facility.

Bowers pointed to comments Mitchell made in a recent interview with the Rome News-Tribune regarding the movements of tons of soil to further stabilize the large ash pond on the west side of Ga. 100 at the plant.

“That’s emblematic of the inherent risk of having this stuff located where it is. You’re always going to be subject to the forces of nature — flooding, hurricanes,” Bowers said.

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