"Coosa Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Alabama Power, alleging significant groundwater pollution violations from the utility’s Gadsden coal ash pond that has been capped in place since 2018."
"GADSDEN, Ala.—The coal ash lagoon at Alabama Power’s Plant Gadsden was supposed to be a model for how to close ash ponds by covering them in place, a process utilities insisted would protect human health and the environment from toxic contaminants in the ash.
Now, groundwater monitoring data and a federal lawsuit are challenging that contention.
The ash pond was the first in Alabama to be closed with a cover-in-place system in 2018, after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2015 coal ash rules, and Alabama Power planned to use the same basic technique at the coal ash ponds for five other power plants across the state.
But today, seven years after the Gadsden pond closure was completed, environmental groups say the facility is still leaking toxic substances into groundwater on the banks of the Coosa River and Neely Henry Lake, a popular boating and bass fishing destination in east Alabama."
Dennis Pillion reports for Inside Climate News July 29, 2025.
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