Marking the end of a multi-year process, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has issued a Coal Combustion Residual closure permit for Alabama Power’s Plant Barry ash pond.
ADEM issued the order for the Mobile facility on July 1. It allows the utility provider to move ahead with the closure of the pond per U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations implemented in 2015. Those regulations require coal-fired power plants that used wet ponds to dispose of ash in order to close the ponds and transition to dry handling and disposal. Alabama Power had previously made the transition to dry handling and disposal but had to go through the required steps to close its ponds.
Alabama Power is using the seal-in-place option for its existing ash ponds as opposed to relocating the ash to a secure landfill. The decision came after “years of evaluating the best possible choice for closing its coal ash sites,” the company said, before ultimately deciding that “sealing the sites through the close-in-place method was the best alternative offered by the EPA.”
Critics have spoken out against the plan, saying the ash will continue to pollute the groundwater.
ADEM had previously issued draft permits for permanent closures at Plant Miller in Jefferson County, Plant Greene County and Plant Gadsden in Etowah County.
The issues were addressed at a series of public meetings held over the past year at each of the company’s coal-powered generating sites. ADEM also held hearings related to the closures.