"ATLANTA — Environmental groups urged Georgia officials to reject plans by Georgia Power to keep coal waste in ponds at several power plants.
The utility plans to leave coal ash in unlined retaining ponds that will continue leaching toxic metals after they are closed, the Southern Environmental Law Center said in a letter to Georgia environmental officials on Aug. 5. The storage pits would be submerged in groundwater, according to the environmental group.
“Although Georgia Power will add no more ash to the waste ponds, nearly fifty million tons of coal ash will remain, continuing to degrade and occupy the aquifer, and continuing to leak coal ash and its pollutant-laden leachate into the environment and surrounding public waters,” said the letter signed by Christopher Bowers, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. It was addressed to two state officials in the environmental protection division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and also written on behalf of three other environmental groups."
