By Dennis Pillion, AL..com
Alabama Power has announced a deal to remove and recycle “almost all” of the 22 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash sitting in an unlined lagoon on the banks of the Mobile River.
Alabama Power announced Thursday that it will join with Eco Material Technologies to build a new coal ash recycling facility in Bucks, Ala., about 25 miles north of downtown Mobile.
The new plant would treat and dry the wet coal ash slurry from 597 acres at the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plan. The recycled material will be used in making concrete.
The agreement comes about six months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan that would reject Alabama’s coal ash regulations, which would have allowed coal ash in Alabama to remain in unlined pits.
But, Alabama Power told AL.com Friday that the deal had been “well underway” before the EPA’s decision, which has not yet been finalized. The company says it still intends to cover its coal ash ponds in place, pending regulatory approval.
Coal ash is what’s left over when utilities burn coal to make electricity. The ash often contains potentially harmful substances like lead, arsenic, mercury, and other heavy metals, which leach into groundwater and surface waters from unlined ponds. The ponds at the Barry plant sit in the heart of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, dubbed “America’s Amazon” for its remarkable biodiversity.
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