The Risks

The only proven way to stop coal ash pollution is to move it away from water.

The risks of Leaving Coal Ash Along Rivers

1. Flooding and hurricanes cause spills from coal ash pits. This has happened multiple times, including at:

   • Inactive coal ash basins at Duke Energy’s H.F. Lee plant during Hurricane Matthew (by then a Category 1 hurricane) in 2016, when it spilled into the Neuse River and again during Hurricane Florence.

   • Duke Energy’s Sutton Steam Plant, where flooding from 2018’s Hurricane Florence breached the dam and caused about 2,000 cubic yards of coal ash - roughly enough to fill 180 dump trucks - to spill into the Cape Fear River. (Read here to find out how this disaster could have been averted.)

   Coal ash spills across the nation have cost billions of dollars, taken decades to clean up, and caused immense damage to fishing, hunting, tourism, real estate, and other industries.

2. Arsenic, radium, cobalt, and other pollutants do not go away.

   • While Alabama Power would only be liable for monitoring their capped pits for 30 years, the coal ash would remain there indefinitely.

   • Since cap-in-place does not line the bottom of the pits, coal ash will continue to leak toxic heavy metals into groundwater long after the pits are capped. This is what has happened at Alabama Power’s only capped pit, Gadsden, where they continue to find illegal pollutant levels.

   • Researchers have even found that cap-in-place can make pollution worse.

   • Additionally, several coal ash pits are dangerously close to drinking water supply sources for nearby communities.

   • Where utilities have done the appropriate analysis and excavated ash, such as in South Carolina, they have documented dramatic drops in groundwater contamination. 

   30 years is not forever, and future generations should not be burdened with this constant threat.

Misconceptions about risks of removal

1. Trucking: Alabama Power is currently trucking coal ash to landfills at several of its facilities around the state. Trucking is a constant and routine aspect of the operation of power plants nationwide.

   Numerous other facilities with similar quantities of coal ash and even more difficult site logistics are currently conducting coal ash removal efforts safely.  Since 2014, millions of tons of coal ash have been moved by truck and rail from leaking coal ash pits across the Southeast without any serious incident.

   Having a covered truck spill is possible but very rare, and spilling a relatively small on land is more manageable than a coal ash pond failure spilling millions of tons into a major waterway. Further, trucks aren’t the only way to deal with the ash. To prevent an excessive number of trucks, other utilities are using rail to remove coal ash, conducting on-site recycling, and building their own on-site or nearby modern landfills.

2. Location, location, location. Before any ash is moved, it is imperative to first determine whether a storage facility, such as a lined landfill, has the necessary protections in place and complies fully with state and federal laws.

   In order to determine whether a facility has all of the necessary protections in place, the public must have access to accurate information concerning a particular storage site and whether the coal ash would be stored properly and safely.

   In serving the public interest, local elected officials must be engaged in these important issues to ensure safety standards are upheld for the communities they represent.

   State decision-makers must remain vigilant in order to do their part in protecting waterways and the health of citizens. Once these waste storage sites are closed properly, there must be zero discharges of pollutants from these sites to Alabama’s rivers, lakes, and streams.

   However, none of Alabama’s power companies have released any research on landfill locations.