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  • New Podcast: Manufacturing Danger: The BioLab Story
  • TV Highlights This Week

News Articles: Coal Ash Ponds

A hundred or so people in church pews in various stages of engagement in a public conversation.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Decades-long dispute over whether coal ash made Monroe County residents ill is settled out of court

Long-running lawsuits brought against Georgia Power by residents of the Monroe County town of Juliette have been resolved "to the satisfaction of both parties."

December 10, 2024
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
coal ash pond

Tagged as: 

  • News

EPA just rejected Alabama’s plan for a state-run coal ash program. What does it mean for Georgia?

Georgia environmental advocates say they hope the Biden administration’s recent decision to deny Alabama’s application for a state-run coal ash disposal will have implications for Georgia Power.

May 28, 2024
|
By:
  • Jill Nolin and
  • Stanley Dunlap
Power Plant

Tagged as: 

  • News

Federal crackdown on coal ash waste in the works as Southern Co. resists tougher environmental regs

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are seeking public input on a proposal to close a regulatory loophole that conservationists claim utilities are exploiting to avoid cleaning up toxic coal ash from retired power plants.

 

June 20, 2023
|
By:
  • Stanley Dunlap
A part of the coal ash pond adjacent to Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer, seen from the air in August 2019.

Tagged as: 

  • News

Georgia Power customers could be stuck paying billions more for toxic waste disposal

Georgia Power plans to dispose of toxic waste at a number of coal plants around the state using a method that the EPA recently clarified is banned by federal rules and risks contaminating drinking water.

April 10, 2023
|
By:
  • The Telegraph
Georgia Power's Plant Scherer with the coal ash pond where residuals from burning coal at the plant are stored. The pond goes to depths of 80 feet in some places and comes into contact with groundwater.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Federal action on coal ash in Ohio has big implications in Georgia

A recent order by the EPA telling an Ohio power plant it could no longer dispose of toxic coal ash in an unlined pond, thereby polluting groundwater, could have important implications for four Georgia Power sites.

December 02, 2022
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Georgia Today: Georgia leads country in new AIDS infections, Herschel in N. Ga., and Delta is hiring

On the Thursday Dec. 1 edition of the Georgia Today podcast: Georgia leads the country in new AIDS infections, Herschel Walker visits North Georgia, and Delta is hiring thousands 

December 01, 2022
|
By:
  • Peter Biello

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Critics push for coal ash cleanup as state panel considers Georgia Power 12% rate hike

State regulators are set to vote next week on Georgia Power’s long-term plan that environmental and clean energy advocates say falls short of renewable energy goals and of responsibly closing coal-fired power plants.

July 15, 2022
|
By:
  • Stanley Dunlap
Plant Scherer

Tagged as: 

  • Energy

Georgia Power pressing ahead with coal ash storage plan, slow rollout of clean energy

The Georgia Public Service Commission is set to vote July 22 on Georgia Power’s long-term energy plans for coal plant closings, solar energy production, electric vehicle infrastructure and more.

May 31, 2022
|
By:
  • Stanley Dunlap
Juliette residents speak at State Capitol

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Juliette residents tap into new county water line, but coal ash concerns remain

When it closes, Plant Scherer will leave behind about 16 million tons of toxic coal ash, which is the waste generated when coal is burned to produce energy. The plant is one of four Georgia Power sites where coal ash is poised to be left in unlined pits where it is in contact with groundwater.

May 09, 2022
|
By:
  • Jill Nolin
Plant Scherer Coal ash poind

Tagged as: 

  • Energy

Georgia Power exec: Closing coal ash ponds will still leave contaminated groundwater

Four coal ash ponds Georgia Power plans to close in place will continue to expose ash to groundwater after the closures are completed, an executive with the utility disclosed this week.

April 08, 2022
|
By:
  • Dave Williams
Plant Scherer in Juliette

Tagged as: 

  • Energy

State coal ash cleanup process unsettled after new federal EPA directive

Georgia’s top environmental regulator says his agency is adjusting to what he called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “new interpretation” of an Obama-era coal ash disposal rule.

January 31, 2022
|
By:
  • Jill Nolin
Plant Scherer

Tagged as: 

  • Energy

How a powerful company convinced Georgia to let it bury toxic waste in groundwater

For the past several years, Georgia Power has gone to great lengths to skirt the federal rule requiring coal-fired power plants to safely dispose of massive amounts of toxic waste they produced.

January 20, 2022
|
By:
  • Max Blau
The coal ash pond, foreground, where waste from Georgia Power's coal fired Plant Scherer is stored. The EPA said it will not allow coal ash to be stored in contact with groundwater as it is now at Plant Scherer.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

New EPA action could mean big changes for Georgia coal ash storage

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is taking a stronger role in keeping coal ash, the toxic material left over from burning coal to make electricity, away from groundwater. 

January 12, 2022
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
Georgia Power's Plant Scherer, fronted by the pile of coal being prepped to burn to make electricity, in 2019.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Environmentalists' 2021 list of Georgia water problems features old and new issues

Georgia environmental advocates have released their annual list of water issues they say need to be addressed — their so-called Dirty Dozen. 

December 15, 2021
|
By:
  • Grant Blankenship
Plant Scherer in Monroe County

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Sierra Club appealing coal ash ruling to Georgia Supreme Court

Georgia Power plans to excavate and remove the ash from 19 ponds and close the other 10 ponds in place. Lawyers for the Sierra Club have argued the PSC failed to take into account Georgia Power’s culpability in creating the coal ash problem to begin with, and thus should not be allowed to pass all of those costs onto customers. 

December 08, 2021
|
By:
  • Dave Williams
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