+ What is coal ash?
Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned. It is a powdery material the utility mixes with water and sends to massive ponds near the power plant.

+ Is coal ash really toxic?
Yes. Coal ash contains high concentrations of heavy metals, including mercury, arsenic, andlead, which are hazardous to human health, wildlife, and waterways. Since the 2008 Kingston, Tennessee coal ash spill, more than 30 cleanup workers have died and hundreds more are seriously ill. A report by a physician-led non-profit found that coal ash ponds can leach toxic constituents thousands of times greater than drinking water standards.

+ Where is the coal ash pond in Coastal Alabama?
Alabama Power’s Plant Barry is immediately adjacent to the Mobile River, about 25 miles north of Mobile Bay. It is surrounded on three sides by the river.

+ Is pollution from the Plant Barry ash pond leaking into our environment now?
Yes, toxic pollutants like arsenic and cobalt are illegally leaking into groundwater at the site. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has issued multiple fines to Alabama Power, including a fine of $250,000 at Plant Barry for polluting groundwater

+ What is ‘cap-in-place' and what does it do?
Cap-in-place means removing the water from the coal ash pond, consolidating it, and covering the top of the pond with a synthetic liner. It does not line the bottom of the coal ash pond. Researchers have found cap-in-place can make pollution worse.

+ What doesn’t cap-in-place do?
Cap-in-place does not necessarily stop groundwater pollution and it does not protect the pond from flooding and the potential for a spill. A capped facility (H.F. Lee) in North Carolina spilled coal ash into a nearby river during flooding caused by a hurricane. Alabama Power finished the cap-in-place process at Gadsden in the fall of 2018. They continue to find arsenic as much as 10,000% above the national groundwater limit and radium 50% above the limit 3.

+ What could go wrong?
The worst-case scenario is a catastrophic coal ash spill. Alabama Power’s coal ash pond at Plant Barry has 21 million tons of toxic ash – that’s more than 20 times the volume of oil spilled in the BP Oil Disaster. Unlike the BP Oil Disaster, this coal ash pond is not out in the Gulf but 25 miles upriver from Mobile. The impact of a coal ash spill on our real estate, tourism, and seafood industries, as well as our environmental and public health, would be devastating. The Kingston, TN coal ash spill was only 1.1 million gallons and resulted in human death and illness, inestimable environmental damage, and cost an estimate of $3 billion to clean up

+ What does the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) have to say about this?
ADEM has fined Alabama Power $1.25 million - less than 0.1% of the company's 2018 net income - for their groundwater violations but are not currently requiring removal of coal ash. In their November 14, 2019 response to Alabama Power’s CCR documents submitted for approval, ADEM criticized the company for jumping to the conclusion of cap-in-place without doing proper research: “As stated previously, it is the Department’s position that any final decision regarding corrective measures at the sites is premature, considering the …extent of contamination at each of the sites has yet to be fully delineated.

+ What are other states doing with their coal ash?
Coal ash removal is already taking place in nearby states.
• Alabama Power’s sister company, Georgia Power, has voluntarily agreed to remove coal ash from every one of the utility’s 19 coastal coal ash pits.
• In North Carolina, which has seen disastrous spills in the past, more than 13 million tons of coal ash have been removed and Duke Energy has agreed to remove a total of 80 million tons of coal ash cleaning every ash pit in the state.
• In Virginia, recent bipartisan legislation requires the removal of all 29 million tons of coal ash in the state
• In South Carolina, the electric utility Santee Cooper has voluntarily agreed to remove all of the coal ash at every pit in the state.

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+ Won’t moving the coal ash pose its own problems?

Yes, it will. There is no perfect solution to deal with coal ash. However, the problems are known and manageable. As noted above, states around the Southeast have decided that recycling and removal were the better options for their environment, economy, and the community.

+ How does the cost of removal compare to the cost of cap-in-place?
Alabama Power has declined to release any detailed information on the cost of removal. While every site is unique, using the average costs from coal ash removal in South Carolina, Tennessee,and Virginia gives an approximate cost of $1.4 billion dollars for removal of coal ash from Plant Barry. Alabama Power estimates they will spend $896 million capping coal ash at Plant Barry alone. The utility has already added $4.49/month to Alabama customers’ bills to recoup their costs. This is approximately the same as the rate increase Virginia utility customers are paying to remove 29 million tons of coal ash from ponds statewide. Alabama Power’s 2018 financials show the utility had approximately $6 billion in revenue and $930 million in profits.

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+ How do I report coal ash pollution?

If you witness coal ash pollution or have any information related to the pollution caused by Plant Barry, please report it to our group or the Mobile Baykeepers. We are dedicated to protecting our water and holding polluters accountable. You can also send a Dangerous Condition Alert to AL Power at 1-800-888-2726.  

Also, contact your representatives. Baldwin County Elected Officials

Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.

+ How can I find out about pollution at other facilities or other states?
Earthjustice, a nonprofit that handles environmental lawsuits, has also compiled the data from pond operators, nationally. The organization has information on more than 500 coal ash ponds across the United States, including an interactive map and spreadsheet. Users can use these to search by a variety of factors, including state, utility and name of the plant. https://earthjustice.org/features/coal-ash-contaminated-sites-map

If you can’t find the information you’re seeking on a utility’s website, you can check with state regulators. The EPA has compiled a list of those agencies. ​

+ What about landfill location and poor and minority communities?
Coal ash disposal must not disproportionately affect any vulnerable communities. Alabama Power should consider this factor when selecting landfills for removal and in how those landfills are managed. Alabama Power has not released any research on landfill locations.

+ What does the EPA’s CCR rule say?
The Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule does not allow utilities to pick and choose between excavation and cap-in-place. They can cap-in-place only if the site and their plan (1) stop and prevent the coal ash from sitting in groundwater (impoundment), (2) eliminate free liquids, and (3) control, minimize, or eliminate leachate. From our analysis of Alabama Power’s plans and discussions with multiple geologists, the current closure-in-place plan can’t satisfy any of the CCR Rule requirements. It has to satisfy all of them, not just one or two; otherwise, cap-in-place is illegal.

+ What happened with the Tennessee coal ash spill?
The Kingston coal ash spill occurred in 2008 when heavy rain caused a dike to rupture at a coal ash pit at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Plant, releasing 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash. It resulted in 50 deaths of cleanup workers, 40 damaged or destroyed homes, and up to $3 billion in damages and cleanup.

+ What about coal ash spills in North Carolina?
In 2014 a power plant spilled 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River. Ash was found up to 70 miles away. Academic papers have estimated the spill cost the region $295 million. Other spills in North Carolina and elsewhere have had lasting and damaging impacts on the areas public health, economy, and environment.

+ Why is Alabama Power resisting removing the ash from Plant Barry?
We can identify only cost as the driving force behind Alabama Power’s decision to cap-in-place. All of the other reasons given to support capping-in place have proved time and again to be insignificant or immaterial at the many other coal ash pits from which the coal ash has been removed.

+ What about hurricanes and flooding?

Hurricanes are an especially pressing concern. In 2018, Hurricane Florence caused multiple spills of coal ash from Duke Energy facilities. At Duke Energy’s Sutton Steam Plant, flooding from the hurricane breached the dam causing coal ash to spill into the Cape Fear River, this after Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette warned years earlier that such a catastrophe might happen if coal ash wasn’t removed from the side of the river.

Hurricane Florence also caused coal ash to spill at Duke Energy’s already capped H.F. Lee coal plant. The same site had a coal ash spill during Hurricane Matthew. Hurricane Florence almost caused a coal ash spill into South Carolina’s Waccamaw River. There Santee Cooper’s Grainger Power station came mere inches from flood waters overtopping the ash ponds dam. The only reason the utility avoided a spill was because they had proactively begun removing coal ash. The facilities coal ash pond closest to the river was completely flooded only months after being emptied.

Plant Barry is within the flood area from storm surge for Category 3-5 storms and that doesn’t even include the potential for catastrophic river flooding. Flooding is another concern. Plant Barry’s coal ash pond is within the 100 and 500 year flood plains. Hurricane Harvey (2017) and Hurricane Florence (2018) were 1 in 1000 year events. In coastal Alabama, one of the rainiest areas in the United States, we can get 20 inches of rain in a
day without a tropical storm in sight.

+ Isn’t Alabama Power already excavating the coal ash and moving it away from the river?
In 2018, Alabama Power ceased putting additional ash into the pond and completed the conversion to dry ash handling.  In 2024, Alabama Power announced a partnership with Eco Material Technology to recycle wet ash from the pond.  Eco Material estimates the 90 to 95% of the wet ash can be removed and made into an additive for concrete.  This additive replaces a portion of the cement in concrete; it improves the curing time and makes concrete stronger and  more impervious to water.  The recycling plant being built at Plant Barry will be operational in early 2026 and will process 600,000 to 700,000 tons of wet ash per year.  At this rate, it would take 30 years to remove the ash from the pond..

+ Is the ash pond at Plant Barry lined?
No. Alabama Power often refers to a “natural clay liner”, but they have acknowledged in reports to the EPA and ADEM that there is no liner.

+ How high are groundwater levels at Plant Barry?

Alabama Power’s groundwater monitoring shows that the average groundwater level at the site is higher than the coal ash. The utility’s own monitoring has shown groundwater levels as high as 8.17 feet above sea level with an average groundwater level of >3.6 feet above sea level. This is especially problematic because Alabama Power’s documentation and figures of coal ash elevation at the site show the bottom of the ash is at approximately 3 feet above sea level with some portions of the ash as low as 10 feet below sea level. This strongly suggests that coal ash at Plant Barry is soaking in groundwater.

+ Has Alabama Power said how they will deal with the ongoing groundwater pollution?
Alabama Power recently released their “Assessment of Corrective Measures” which describes how they plan to address the ongoing groundwater pollution. While they outlined many potential strategies in the plan, they commit to only one: ‘Monitored Natural Attenuation’ which means that once the ash is covered by the cap, Alabama Power will wait (and hope) for “natural processes” to reduce the groundwater pollution over a period of several years to decades. However, the company will be liable for the closed pit for only thirty years after closure.

+ Is Alabama Power building a redundant dike around the ash pond?
Alabama Power has given some limited details about a redundant dike they say they will construct around the pond to protect it from flooding. The dike is often mentioned as being able to withstand the 500 year 24-hour flood, about 21 inches. Unfortunately, this is woefully inadequate to handle the kind of storm events that have hit the U.S. in the last few years.