Alabama Power says it has reached a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency over concerns about millions of pounds of coal ash dumped in unlined ditches near Mobile.

“Importantly, nowhere in the agreement does the EPA allege or determine that Alabama Power’s (coal ash pond) compliance program has affected any source of drinking water, or otherwise endangered human life, animal or aquatic species, or the environment,” Alabama Power said in a press release Friday.

Plant Barry is 597 acres and holds almost 22 million cubic yards of coal ash, about a quarter of the state’s total coal ash.

The company further stated that testing has shown no impact to the Mobile River.

The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.

The settlement will allow the company to avoid adding liners to prevent toxic coal ash from seeping into rivers and drinking water at the large coal ash pond called Plant Barry, said Mobile Bay Keeper, an environmental group.

“The most pressing problem remains unresolved: millions of tons of coal ash remain saturated in groundwater in the unlined pond, polluting nearby waterways in a manner that does not comply with federal law.”

The group stated in a press release on Wednesday that the EPA could still take action on a past violation to require the toxic ash to be removed.

Alabama Power said the settlement requires the utility to increase monitoring of its coal ash ponds by adding groundwater monitoring wells and updating its emergency action plan to account for severe weather.

Coal ash contains toxins that are harmful to human health and can cause cancer, including mercury, arsenic, cadmium and others according to the EPA.

In 2023, the EPA revoked Alabama’s coal ash permitting plan, pushing back against the state’s environmental agency and its utilities. Alabama Power said that creating further buffers around coal ash waste, currently stored in unlined ponds alongside rivers throughout the state, would cost billions of dollars.

The EPA said last year that Alabama’s plan fell short of federal standards. The EPA said then it had informed the Alabama Department of Environmental Management about problems with its plan, but the state had not remedied them. As a result, Alabama faced the possibility of excavating and relocating millions of tons of wet coal ash slurry or develop a method of safely storing it in place.

In 2024 the United States Supreme Court ruled on a case to significantly limit the regulatory powers of federal agencies like the EPA.

For decades prior to 2015, many plants disposed of their coal ash, waste leftover after the combustion of coal in a power plant, by flushing it into nearby unlined ponds near rivers. The heaviest ash particles would settle to the bottom of the ponds and water would flow from them into nearby rivers. Starting in 2015, new regulations forced coal-fired plants nationwide to switch to dry coal ash disposal

Alabama’s unlined coal ash ponds contain about 100 million cubic yards of coal ash on about 2,000 acres spread throughout the state. One ash pond at other large ponds include Plant Gaston in Shelby County, and Plants Miller and Gorgas, both in Jefferson County, each containing about 25 million cubic yards of coal ash.

Prior to the settlement, the state’s utilities faced a significant responsibility to clean up the ponds.

Alabama Power’s announcement today only address the Plant Barry pond in Mobile.

“Closure by removal would take decades to complete, which exceeds the regulatory closure timeframes, and there is not enough available landfill capacity to accept the approximately 100 million cubic yards of ash in our ponds,” said Alabama Power Vice President of Environmental Affairs Susan Comensky at a public hearing on the EPA’s decision last year.

Alabama Power estimated in 2020 that would cost $3.3 billion to leave the coal ash ponds in place but cover them with a protective liner, which is a less expensive option than moving the coal ash.