New life for coal ash? Alabama Power announces recycling plans at Plant Barry

By SCOTT JOHNSON

Originally published in Lagniappe.

A new cement recycling initiative at Alabama Power’s Plant Barry in Mobile County

will lead to removing 700,000 tons of coal ash per year from the facility's unlined

ponds that sit near the Mobile River in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.

The move is an apparent redirection for the electric company, whose representatives and supporters have consistently argued that the risks of excavating the 21 million

tons of waste material from the 600-acre pond outweigh the risks of current plans to

permanently bury the material.

Last week, on Jan. 23, Alabama Power and Utah-based Eco Material Technologies

announced a collaboration to begin the process of harvesting coal ash from the facility

in Bucks for recycling into sustainable cement blends.

The plan would remove 700,000 tons of coal ash annually, which means it would still

take 30 years to fully deplete the entire amount stored there.

The process requires the construction of a harvesting plant where coal ash that is

excavated and consolidated from the ponds will be dried, screened and have excess

carbon removed.

Construction on the site will begin this year and operate by approximately January

2026. The “on-site” facility will be run and maintained by Eco Material 24 hours a day,

seven days a week, with a team of 25 employees.

After processing, the ash can be sold locally or transported by rail to the rest of the

southeast region, according to Eco Material.

While Alabama Power described the facility as “on-site,” Eco Materials said it would

build the processing plant “within the permitted boundary of the site where material

will be excavated and consolidated.”

Representatives for Alabama Power and Eco Material Technologies did not respond to

follow-up questions asking about the specifics of the location.

No terms or timelines were disclosed about the deal. Alabama Power representatives

did not respond to questions about how the new recycling collaboration will impact its

plans to store coal ash.

Green cement

The cement created out of Plant Barry coal ash will be used to repair and construct

bridges, roads and buildings throughout the Southeast, according to a statement from

Eco Material, and using coal ash in cement production offers a near-zero carbon

alternative for the building material.

Eco Material claims its process reduces 99 percent of carbon dioxide emissions

typically associated with creating concrete, and its sustainable materials are

competitive with traditional cement, matching typical performance and 20 percent

stronger.

The cement industry accounts for approximately 8 percent of global emissions,

according to a study by policy institute Chatham House.

The initiative mirrors two other projects already announced for Georgia Power, which

is Alabama Power’s sister subsidiary under Southern Company. Plant Barry will be the

sixth facility where Eco Material is currently harvesting coal ash and it currently has

nine plants producing or under construction.

Following the mandated closure of coal ash ponds in 2018, Alabama Power says more

than 680,000 tons of dry coal ash produced at Plant Barry has been used as alternative

materials.

“Alabama Power has a long history of recycling coal ash from its plants for beneficial

use in products like concrete and other construction materials,” Alabama Power

senior vice president Brandon Dillard said in a statement. “We’re very pleased that

this collaboration with Eco Material will expand our ability to harvest coal ash at the

plant and contribute to development of materials that impact the growth of our

state.”

‘Risks’ of excavating

The recycling collaboration with Eco Materials comes a month after it was disclosed in

court filings that Alabama Power is seeking to negotiate a settlement with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In January 2023, the EPA reported potential violations in a letter to Alabama Power,

saying sealing coal ash at the Plant Barry pond would release contaminants into

groundwater “in perpetuity” because it would leave a significant amount of the

materials sitting in groundwater in an unlined pond alongside the Mobile River.

In August 2023, EPA officials announced the agency planned to deny a coal ash

program application submitted by the Alabama Department of Environmental

Management (ADEM), which it deemed “significantly less protective” than federal

regulations.

Alabama Power has been progressing with its closure plan under its ADEM-issued

permit. The cap-in-place project is set to be completed by 2031 at a cost of approximately $1 billion. The company says it has already spent $257 million on the work.

The Plant Barry ash pond has been in use since 1965, and Alabama Power began

closing it and others across the state in 2019, with funding from a 3-percent rate

increase granted by the Alabama Public Service Commission. That increase remains

on the books and appears to have generated hundreds of millions in revenue for the

company.

Alabama Power’s sister company, Georgia Power, voluntarily agreed to remove coal

ash from every one of the utility’s 19 coastal coal ash pits.

Critics of the plans at Plant Barry, including Mobile Baykeeper and the Southern

Environmental Law Center, have argued the plan violates federal law as it leaves the

toxic material in contact with groundwater.

Environmental advocates have often cited the potential for recycling as a benefit to

removing coal ash and offsetting part of the costs for excavation. However, Alabama

Power and even state officials have rejected the suggestion, citing risks.

Alabama Power has estimated that removing ash from Plant Barry would take a daily

convoy of 200 trucks 15 years to complete, while the material would likely be

transported through underserved communities.

"Closing by removal also raises issues related to trucking materials for years and,

likely, decades through multiple communities – raising the risk of road accidents,

impact to road infrastructure and related costs, as well as issues of traffic and noise,”

The 600-acre coal ash ponds located at Alabama Power's Plant Barry in Bucks, roughly 25 miles north of Mobile (via Mobile Baykeeper).

Alabama Power spokesman Michael Sznajderman said in 2019.

During public hearings in 2021 concerning Alabama Power’s coal ash plan, Wiley

Blankenship with Coastal Alabama Partnership said, “We feel like it would be more

dangerous if [coal ash] were removed due to things like trucking incidents, accidents,

over the course of many, many years… Opponents of closure in place have tried to

depict this approach as illegal and uncommon; more than half the coal ash in the

South is being closed safely in place rather than being trucked through and to

communities and compounding other environmental issues.”

Lagniappe requested that Alabama Power officials explain how or why its new

recycling collaboration avoids these risks and disclose any financial compensation it

receives.

When contacted, Alabama Power spokeswoman Beth Thomas simply re-shared the

company’s press release.

Mobile Baykeeper Cade Kistler said he and his organization are “cautiously

optimistic” about the announced recycling plans but said they would be “eager” to

learn more. "We've been working fiercely for almost a decade to prevent coal ash from being left in an unlined pit polluting groundwater and the Mobile River, not to mention to mitigate the threat of a catastrophic spill,” Kistler said in a statement. “After these many years of meetings with Alabama Power, water testing, permit hearings, community

meetings, letter campaigns, and even litigation, it's encouraging to finally see tangible

action moving ash out of this site and away from the Mobile River.” Kistler said, however, the “devil’s in the details,” and he’s still trying to understand the project and what Alabama Power’s long-term commitment will be, noting that 700,000 tons is equal to about 3 percent of all the coal ash in the pond.

“This is both a real change and something that will have to be carried out for decades

to effectively protect the Mobile River and Delta,” he said. “Overall, I'd say we're

cautiously optimistic. After nine years of working on this issue, this is the most

meaningful action Alabama Power has taken to date to fix its flawed cap-in-place plan

at Plant Barry and protect Alabamians and their waterways.

“If they follow through, and this plan effectively removes the ash, then it would be a

big win. Unfortunately, we don't have the details yet, to be confident in whether this

plan will achieve that or not," Kistler added.