In the first week of 2019, a few inches of rain fell throughout the Mobile River Watershed. A typical rain like this can transform the Mobile-Tensaw Delta into a large flooded forest. Looming on the banks of this flood-prone area is Alabama Power’s 597-acre unlined dam filled with toxic coal ash. More than 21 million tons of coal ash is only held back by an earthen (dirt) dam.
On January 7 2019, during the height of this flooding, Mobile Baykeeper staff flew with a SouthWings pilot over the flooded area to check on the dam. Two days later, staff visited the ash pit aboard the Baykeeper boat. As we approached the ash pit, the swampy forest gave way, revealing waters from the Mobile River reaching as much as 15 feet up the sides of the dam. The river flowed powerfully through the forest and surged alongside the ash pond dam. The forest surrounding the dam, usually completely dry, was flooded with river water.
This flooding is extremely concerning:
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Coal ash is full of toxic heavy metals that cause health issues in humans and are bad for the environment. The ash pit at Plant Barry is no different, Alabama Power’s has continued to pollute groundwater with arsenic and cobalt in violation of groundwater standards.
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A major flood-prone river surrounds three sides of the dam. Images from our flight and boat trip in the first week of 2019 show just a few inches of rain throughout the watershed caused massive flooding. The most recent coal ash spill happened after Hurricane Florence dumped 35 inches of rain in 24 hours in North Carolina. When a hurricane of that magnitude strikes Coastal Alabama there is a significant likelihood the dam at Plant Barry would be overtopped or breached allowing coal ash to escape. This would be catastrophic.