I reported, NO ONE listened!

This story by Jason Morton that ran in 2009 after a flight with SouthWings. It was reported to ADEM and EPA. No one took action. I was ignored in 2009. Today, the same site is in the exact same condition. Thank goodness someone is paying attention now. I seriously hope it isn't too little too late.

I found this article in the Tuscaloosa News archives and decided to re-post it since Alabama Power Co was just fined 1.25 million for what they have been doing and getting away with for years!

Environmentalist spots possible coal ash violations. 

By Jason Morton / Staff Writer

Posted Mar 1, 2009 at 12:01 AM Updated Mar 1, 2009 at 12:23 PM

McDuffie Island coal terminal. Coal dust floating out to sea.

In the past fiscal year, 18.5 million tons of coal passed through the Alabama Port Authority's McDuffie Island in Mobile Bay. This photo taken by environmentalist John Wathen shows a black swath around the island's southeastern point that could be coal ash. While the state Port Authority hasn't commented on the photo, Davina Marraccini, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said no one has a permit to dump coal on the ocean floor and that "someone really ought to file a report."

Coal ash in the Emory River
12/29/08 Photo by John Wathen, Flight by SouthWings

When tons of coal ash -- the toxic by-product that comes with burning coal for energy -- washed across acres of rural Tennessee in December, Tuscaloosa environmental advocate John L. Wathen went to see the devastation first-hand.
Appalled at what he found, Wathen last month began looking for danger signs at coal-fired power plants in Alabama to see if a similar disaster could occur. From the air, Wathen spotted conditions at two Alabama Power Co. plants that has him asking questions.
But it wasn't just the operations of a private corporation that he found upsetting.
Wathen suspects that the state of Alabama was allowing its own form of environmental harm -- not to its own lakes, rivers or streams, but to the Gulf of Mexico.

Coal dust flowing out from McDuffie Island coal terminal. 02/12/09

"We recognize that coal, America's most abundant energy resource, plays a critical role in meeting our country's growing need for affordable and reliable electricity," the coalition's Web site said. "Our goal is to advance the development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies that will produce electricity with near-zero emissions."

Coal dust flowing out from McDuffie Island coal terminal. 02/12/09

In Alabama, that means reducing the estimated 37 million pounds of toxins produced by fossil fuel-based power plants in 2006, the most recent year that complete data was available, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Of these toxins, 7.3 million pounds came from the Greene County Electric Generating Plant in Forkland and the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant in the town of Bucks in Mobile County, the EPA said.

Green Co Steam Plant blackwater discharge 02/29/09

At both of these plants owned by Alabama Power Co. -- a de facto member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity through its parent corporation, Southern Co. -- Wathen found what he believes may be potential violations and hazards emanating from the plants' ash ponds.

Green Co Steam Plant blackwater discharge 02/29/09

Coal ash is the residue left over from burning coal. Coal plants scrub the ash off the inside of smokestacks, then deposit it into ponds of water, on the theory that the ash and its toxins -- mercury, arsenic, selenium, among others -- will settle to the bottom of the pond and thus cease to be an environmental hazard.
"Mercury is one of the more serious toxins that affects humans and it's found in all coal at some levels," Wathen said. "It's going to be long-term. This ash situation is just now coming to light."
According to the EPA, both the Greene County and Barry steam plants have been in some form of non-compliance with the Clean Air Act in each of the past three years, and both have violated their respective discharge permits at least once.
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management does not have a long list of rules pertaining to coal ash at the nine facilities in the state that produce it.
Essentially, all the agency says is that none of the coal ash is allowed to flow freely out of the pond.
"We closely monitor the volume of material [in] the ponds," said ADEM spokesman Jerome Hand.
Coal ash concerns

At the Greene County site, Wathen took aerial photos that show what appears to be the mixing of the plant's ash pond with a wetland on the other side of the pond's earthen dam.
"There's not a lot of difference, from the look of it, from that material in that ash pit and the material in that wetland," Wathen said. "That is not a healthy wetland. This stuff is perking through that dam."








While no scientific studies have yet been conducted on Wathen's findings, he filed a formal complaint with ADEM based on what he saw in Mobile County.

In that county, a large, dark finger of material curled into the Mobile River from the underside of a thin peninsula. On the other side of that peninsula is the Barry Steam Plant's ash pit.
"As you can see from that black water coming in from some of my photos, they're already discharging [into the river]," Wathen said. "Any failure of the ash pond dam is going to directly impact the Mobile River and all the fisheries below."
Alabama Power spokesman Pat Wylie said it was unclear what Wathen captured in his photos. Wylie said he doubted there was any danger because the company had performed reviews of all its coal ash pits following the Tennessee disaster.
Wylie said the dark spots on Wathen's images could be anything, including areas of deeper water that, when viewed from the air, appear dark.
Still, an Alabama Power Co. investigator is looking into the dark trails curling into the Mobile River.
Wylie said incidents like the coal ash pond break in Tennessee have caused all power companies to re-examine their own practices. One change already implemented is an annual inspection of the ash pits, instead of the two-year timetable the power company previously used.
"And there's almost a daily look from the people who work on the site," Wylie said.
"Whenever something like that happens, a prudent business is going to look at their operations ...," Wylie said. "There are regulations that we have to adhere to in order to make sure we're not just wantonly harming the environment.
"It'd be hard to believe something negative is seeping into the water."
Gulf work
In the last fiscal year, 18.5 million tons of coal passed through the Alabama Port Authority's McDuffie Island in Mobile Bay.
The 556-acre island has been the entry and exit point for coal in Alabama since the mid-1970s, said port authority spokeswoman Judith Adams.
But exactly how long coal dust and bits of the carbon rock have been accumulating on the ocean floor is unknown.
While Wathen's aerial tour of Alabama coal facilities revealed a black swath around the island's southeastern point, Adams did not return a call seeking comment about those pictures.

"They have some of the filthiest stuff in the world dumped inside this bay," Wathen said.
Davina Marraccini, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said no reports of illegal dumping had been filed for that part of the ocean.
She also said no one had permission to be dumping coal on the ocean floor either.
"Anything discharged into ocean waters requires a permit ..." Marraccini said. "Someone really ought to file a report."
Two sides, one rock
Advocates of coal point to its benefits, including affordability, widespread use and developing technology that they say makes it cleaner and safer to burn.
According to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations, coal mining also employed more than 1,300 people in Tuscaloosa County in fiscal 2007.
The largest coal-based employer in the county is Jim Walter Resources, which operates underground mines in Brookwood and others across the state.
Dennis Hall, spokesman for the company, estimated that almost 1,900 people work for Jim Walter Resources.
"Our coal is primarily used in the steel-making process," Hall said. "So anything made from steel owes its life to coal. Also, over half of all electricity in the United States is generated from coal. There are thousands of products made from by-
products of coal."
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity emphasizes that technological advances have been made to reduce the amount of toxins the coal-burning process leaves in the atmosphere.
"The use of coal for electricity generation has more than tripled since 1970, while criteria emissions controlled under the federal Clean Air Act have been reduced by nearly 50 percent," the coalition's Web site said. "The industry is committed to reducing emissions even further -- including the eventual widespread capture and storage of man-made greenhouse gas emissions."
Critics of coal, however, highlight the liabilities, including the challenge of keeping toxins out of the air, ground and water of communities.
That threat became a reality on Dec. 22, when 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash, enough ash to cover 3,000 acres a foot deep, spilled from a retention pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant near Harriman, Tenn.

Photo by John Wathen, Flight by SouthWings

The devastation flowed at least 25 miles downstream, and arsenic levels in nearby waters spiked to more than 100 times the federally regulated amount.
Critics are becoming ever more vocal.
On the Web site of the Reality campaign, which released a new anti-coal commercial directed by directors Joel and Ethan Coen, viewers are hit with short, quick quotes -- many from the EPA -- pointing out coal's harm on the country and world.
The Waterkeeper Organization, an environmental advocacy group, launched TheDirtyLie.com, a Web site designed to expose what organizers call "the dirty lie" that is "clean coal."
"The coal industry and their lobbyists want you to believe coal is clean," is the first sentence on the Web site. "The truth is that coal pollutes our water, devastates our communities, forests and mountains, kills wildlife and contributes to climate change."
Wathen was in New York City for the Web site's launch party and said he was happy to see attention being paid to the issue.
He said he knows it will be impossible to completely cease using coal, but he said the country must be responsible about it.
"We have to have coal until we can convert to other energy sources," Wathen said. "So while we're waiting ... we need to find cleaner and better ways of taking care of the waste, getting it out of the ground and transporting it."
Reach Jason Morton at jason.morton@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0200.

It's Not Enough but, IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Kingston Tenn., The Emory river 01/09/09 Flight by SouthWings

Dec. 2008,  Harriman Tenn. in a community known as Swan Pond, an antiquated coal ash pond collapsed sending more material debris into the river than all of the World Trade Towers debris in NYC as well as unsafe levels of heavy metals. Since then however, there have been other major issued discovered at many other facilities. This first major coal ash pond failure caused millions of dollars in damage to the environment, the local economy, and the peace of mind for millions of Americans living close to these ticking time bombs. (All aerial photos, courtesy of SouthWings)

Widow Creek power plant coal waste in the Tennessee. River

On the same day the photo above was taken I got a call from SouthWings saying that another pond had blown out farther downstream in Stevens Alabama, at the Widows Creek plant on the Tennessee River. I immediately jumped in another plane and was over the site before ADEM inspectors could get there. The owners, TVA claimed they had a leak in one of the drain pipes. That turned out to be false as most corporate notices about these events are. In Alabama ADEM seems to be intent in apologizing for and protecting the industry more than protecting the environment.

Widow Creek power plant

The "pipe" turned out to be a large overflow tube that had become clogged many years ago. Instead of properly sealing it, they simply covered it up and diverted the flow to another pipe. That also allowed them to raise the level in the pond. Unfortunately the clogged pipe let go after a heavy rain causing the other holding ponds to over top, flooding the tributary to the Tennessee River with Gypsum, also a byproduct of burning coal for energy. 

Widow Creek power plant coal waste in the river

After the Widows Creek blowout I decided to survey all of the coal fired power plants in Alabama and their coal ash ponds. What I found opened my eyes forever to the potential for major issues here in our state as well. Not only the potential for failure in the dikes and dams but a serious threat from chronic discharges of heavy metals such as Mercury from these ponds into Waterways of the US in large volumes. ADEM claimed there was no environmental impact to the ecosystem! Due to time restraints and fuel we were not able to survey all of the sites but what we found was alarming to say the least.

Miller and Gorgas steam plants are very close together in Walker Co.

Miller Power Plant

Miller is the newest and hasn't shown any visible signs of problems but many of the issues associated with coal ash are not visible but are just as serious a threat to our health. "Miller Steam Plant, on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior, emitted more mercury in 2007 than any other coal-burning power plant in the country, according to EPA data compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project. Gorgas Steam Plant ranked 28th in this category (Total Mercury Pounds Emitted: 2007)." (Black Warrior Riverkeeper) 

Gorgas power plant

At the Gorgas plant I did find a black water discharge but it seemed to be coming directly from the plant and or the coal pile. The ash is stored across from the plant where it has to be pumped under the river into the pond. The ash laden water then flows back through the pond to the river in a "sub-surface diffuser". That is a pipe placed under the surface making it almost impossible to get accurate samples. Gorgas is one of the oldest plants left and has dumped literally tons of Mercury into the community over time.

Green County power plant

In Green Co. I saw what looked like a very similar scenario as in Swan Pond Tn. The ash pond is directly adjacent to the river bank with berms or dikes built up to hold more ash than the initial design. In the event of a catastrophic failure such as we saw in the Emory River (top photo) There is no hope for keeping the toxic soup out of the river. 


In this photo you can see the haphazard dikes constructed out of material that would not be approved in normal dam construction in all probability. In Kingston as well as Widow Creek the dikes or berms were constructed out of what's called "bottom ash". At the older plants like this one, that would contain some of the most toxic coal ash since it's been there well before the Clean Air Act. That was the law which brought in sophisticated "scrubbers" on the smoke stacks. 

On closer examination I saw the tell-tail streak of black water leaving the ash pond discharge

Leroy is not an APCO facility.

Traveling South We flew over the Leroy Plant along the Tombigbee River. It too is a fairly new facility and I saw no immediate issues there but once again there was the same scenario of coal ash storage too close to the river. Hopefully nothing ever does happen but if it does there's no stopping it from causing severe damage to the waterway, aquatic life as well as an economic disaster for commercial fishermen who use this stretch of river for their livelihoods. 

Barry Power plant discharges to Mobile River

The next stop was a real eye opener. Barry Steam Plant was, by far the worst discharges I saw all day from any power plant in the state. There was a long black tail of water coming out into the river and curling downstream. It was visible from a mile out and at about 2,000 feet elevation. 

The dark plume entering the river was mixing with the river water and flowing for a long distance downstream. In 2009, I reported this to ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management), EPA and local environmental groups in the area but nothing was done. The power company mouthpieces claimed it was nothing and wasn't even coming from their facility. As usual ADEM accepted the company line and never took action. Recently they did fine the company 1.25 Million for 6 plants found to be in violation.  What about the last 10 years since it was first documented? Will they be held accountable for the true chronic nature of these discharges? No samples were taken, no report filed and no accountability since.

Shame on you Trey

If we are waiting for EPA or ADEM to hold them fully accountable it is a waste of time. When I first reported Barry it was under Trey Glenn's administration at ADEM. Trey was the past director but was under constant scrutiny and accusations for being far too friendly with APCO (Alabama Power Co.) He was even photographed at a baseball game sitting with APCO officials in the APCO private box seats. He was Trumps first pick for EPA region 4 director. We can expect no help from them. I am afraid it will take legal action in the form of Clean Water Act suits if we are ever going to see a serious effort to keep these polluters in line. $1.25 Million seems like a lot to some of us but to a company as large as Southern Co. (APCO) that is less than they make they a single day in all probability. Fines for such seemingly careless and chronic discharges should be high enough to cause real deterrent. 1.25 Million was for 6 plants. I truly believe it should have been doubled at least for each plant.

The reason for my post here is to point out the flawed and falling system for holding major polluters accountable. ADEM is funded, primarily by fees collected for permits. Most of any funds collected through fines is directed into the state "General Fund" and is not distributed back to ADEM for operating expenses needed to adequately patrol the thousands of pollution sites in the state. That is by design so that polluters who also contribute millions of dollars to corrupt politicians also hold the purse strings for our state agency who is here to enforce the Clean Water Act.

Mr. Glenn and other directors, including the current director, Lance LeFleur have stated publicly that it's not ADEM's job to enforce the Clean Water Act. ADEM's job is to issue permits. It is the exact definition of "The fox guarding the henhouse" in Alabama politics. That must change. We need to either change politics or change politicians soon!