After federal regulators threatened to reject Alabama’s lax environmental standards, Alabama Power decided 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 federal government proposed a plan that would reject Alabama’s coal ash regulations, which would have allowed coal ash in Alabama to remain in unlined pits.

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.

Eco Materials Technology CEO Grant Quasha told AL.com that the company expects to be able to recycle “almost all” of the wet coal ash stored at Plant Barry.

“The idea is that we want to use as much of it as possible,” Quasha said. “We won’t know exactly until we get in there, but our goal would be to use over 90% of the material and our technology allows that allows us to do that.

“Our ultimate goal, of course is trying to get as close to 100% as possible.”

Alabama Power spokesperson Beth Thomas said the company was excited to increase its coal ash recycling operations.

“Alabama Power is excited to collaborate with Eco Material, focusing on enhancing our coal ash recycling efforts at Plant Barry,” Thomas said via email. “We have been recycling ash for beneficial use at Plant Barry since 2018. This additional opportunity with Eco Material will add to our ability to move more ash to the market.”

EPA ‘forcing the issue’ on coal ash removal

Alabama Power had originally planned to cover its coal ash in place, but leave it in those unlined lagoons at all its facilities across the state.

Alabama Power’s plan was approved by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, but then, in August of last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved to override ADEM and reject the cover-in-place plan.

The EPA said leaving coal ash in unlined ponds like the one at Plant Barry did not meet the requirements of federal coal ash rules due to ongoing groundwater pollution where coal ash remained in contact with groundwater.

Environmental groups and others argued that the coal ash would continue to pollute groundwater and would leave the area vulnerable to an environmental disaster in the event of a tropical storm, severe flood, or a dam breach like the one that occurred at a TVA plant in Kingston, Tenn. in 2008, spilling millions of tons of ash into two rivers and flooding nearby homes in a wave of ash slurry.

The EPA’s decision, if finalized, could force Alabama utilities to dig out their ash ponds, which would likely cost billions.

The deal announced Thursday could drastically reduce those costs at Plant Barry, by selling the ash as a construction material rather than shipping it to a lined landfill, or building a new lined landfill on the site.

“The EPA is now really forcing the issue and saying the utility industry has to either line and clean-close these ponds, which can be extraordinarily expensive — billions of dollars in some cases — or you need to beneficially use them and clean them up,” Quasha said. “We think, long term, the latter makes more sense, both economically and environmentally.”

How it works

Quasha said Eco Materials and Alabama Power would both contribute capital toward the construction of the plant, and share the revenue when the finished product is sold on the market.

“We’re going to take what is otherwise an eyesore in the best case, and a potential issue or liability in the worst case, and we’re going to clean it up, we’re going to cleanly remove it, so it’s no longer an issue,” Quasha said. “And then we’re going to help solve another environmental problem by using the material to reduce the amount of heavily polluting Portland cement that we need in concrete in the Southeast.

“And we’re going to make money on it.”

Once completed, the new recycling plant is expected to remove 700,000 tons of that ash per year for recycling. At that rate, it would still take around three decades to work through all the coal ash stored at Plant Barry. The plant is expected to operate around the clock and will require a team of about 25 full-time employees, in addition to construction and other temporary jobs.

Quasha said Eco Material Technologies uses a propriety technology to treat and dry coal ash to use as a supplement to Portland cement when making concrete.

Quasha said the ash can substitute for up to about 20% of the Portland cement needed in concrete mixes, reducing the environmental impact of making Portland cement while finding a good use for coal ash.

The company has built or is building similar facilities at coal ash ponds in Georgia and across the country, and calls itself the “leading producer of sustainable cement alternatives in the U.S.”

Eco Material also already recycles dry coal ash from Alabama Power plants that still burn coal. Alabama Power converted its coal fleet from wet ash storage to dry storage after the EPA’s 2015 coal ash rules were approved.

“Alabama Power has a long history of recycling coal ash from its plants for beneficial use in products like concrete and other construction materials,” Brandon Dillard, Alabama Power senior vice president and senior production officer, said in a news release announcing the deal. “We’re very pleased that this collaboration with Eco Material will expand our ability to harvest coal ash at the plant and contribute to development of materials that impact the growth of our state.”

Alabama Power did not immediately respond to inquiries on what the deal meant for Alabama rate payers or its overall strategy for dealing with coal ash.

There is still concern about the safety of using coal ash for other purposes.

A recent EPA report warned of potential issues caused by radiation in coal ash if the material is used as fill in other applications.

Quasha said that report focuses on using the dry ash as fill material, not in concrete, and that encasing the ash in concrete is the best possible outcome.

“The best thing you can do with this material, on a whole bunch of different fronts, is put it in concrete,” he said.

Environmental group ‘cautiously optimistic’

Environmental group Mobile Baykeeper, which had battled for years to see the coal ash removed from Plant Barry, said it was cautiously optimistic about the announcement, but wanted to learn more details about the plan.

“We’ve been working fiercely for almost a decade to prevent coal ash from being left in an unlined pit polluting groundwater and the Mobile River, not to mention work to mitigate the threat of a catastrophic spill,” Baykeeper Cade Kistler said in an email. “After these many years of meetings with Alabama Power, water testing, permit hearings, community meetings, letter campaigns, and even litigation, it’s encouraging to finally see tangible action moving ash out of this site and away from the Mobile River.”

Kistler noted that the plans would involve removing just 3% of the ash from Plant Barry each year and that the group wanted to know more about Alabama Power’s long-term commitments to clean up the site, but that the announcement seemed to be a step in the right direction.

“After nine years of working on this issue this is the most meaningful action Alabama Power has taken to date to fix their flawed cap-in-place plan at Plant Barry and protect Alabamians and their waterways,” Kistler said. “If they follow through, and this plan effectively removes the ash, then it would be a big win.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the details, yet, to be confident in whether this plan will achieve that or not.”

What about the rest of the state?

The Plant Barry coal ash pond has long been a lightning rod for criticism due to its location and size, but Alabama Power also has several other coal ash ponds around the state to deal with.

According to the EPA, Alabama’s unlined coal ash ponds hold roughly 100 million cubic yards of coal ash and cover more than 2,000 acres across the state. All of Alabama’s major ash ponds are believed to be in contact with groundwater, based on EPA paperwork and engineering reports submitted by the utilities.

The ash pond at Plant Barry in Mobile County covers 597 acres and contains nearly 22 million cubic yards of coal ash. Ponds at Plant Gorgas in Jefferson County and Plant Gaston in Shelby County contain about 25 million cubic yards each, and Plant Miller in Jefferson County holds about 10 million cubic yards.

So far, the agreement between Eco Material and Alabama Power only involves the ash at Plant Barry.

Quasha said there are no current plans to expand to Alabama Power’s other ash ponds in the state, as the finished products are sold regionally, and the company is focusing on other parts of the country.

Thomas, the Alabama Power spokeswoman, said Alabama Power still intends to close its other ponds in place.

“Our plans for all ash ponds remain the same—to close in place—as offered by the EPA rule and approved by ADEM,” Thomas said. “We will continue to use beneficial use opportunities as they are available.”

SEE ALSO: Alabama, EPA in billion-dollar showdown over coal ash

Did Alabama err by rushing to allow utilities to cover in place?

Who would pay for coal ash cleanup? You or the power company?

*UPDATED at 12 p.m. to add comment from Mobile Baykeeper