Something in the Water? Gulf Power Faces Lawsuit for Coal-Ash
Posted June 06, 2014 09:05 am
Scholz Power Plant on the Apalachicola River
SNEADS, FL - Producing the electricity that powers Florida homes can have a negative impact on the state's water supply. That's the charge in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Gulf Power Co., alleging the company is in violation of the Clean Water Act.
The document charges the company with illegally discharging hazardous waste into the Apalachicola River from its 40-acre coal-ash pond near Sneads.
"This counsels in favor of strong coal-ash regulations and control, and currently we just don't have that," said Alisa Coe with Earthjustice, the attorney on the case. "Our household waste right now is better regulated than these toxic heavy metals and other pollutants."
According to the lawsuit, groups have observed coal ash leaking into the river. A spokesperson for Gulf Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, said that after they became aware of the pending legal complaint, tests were conducted at the site that determined the company was in compliance.
In general, coal-ash contains carcinogens such as
arsenic, lead and the neurotoxin mercury. The company
has a permit to discharge treated coal-ash water, but
the groups allege the contamination is leaking at
un-permitted points on the river and has not been
treated.
The lawsuit is asking Gulf Power to clean up the site.
With Florida as the seventh largest coal-ash producer in
the nation, Coe said it's time the state paid more
attention to what's happening to the byproduct of
coal-fired power plants.
"In Florida, our waterways are our life," she said, "
and having clean water is so important, both to the way
we live our lives, but to our economy and to our future
as a state."
A coal-ash spill occurred earlier this year further
north, on the Dan River in North Carolina, spilling
140,000 tons of toxic water into the river. Witnesses
say coal-ash sludge now coats the bottom of that
riverbed for 70 miles downstream.
Photos/graphics and links added by the Observer
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