Edward Smith, edward.smith@sierraclub.org, 314-705-4975
Little Rock, AR -- Last week, the Sierra Club filed a request to vacate the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s (ADEQ) wastewater discharge permit for the Flint Creek coal-burning plant, owned and operated by Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO). The filing alleges that the state failed to consider relevant factors meant to protect people and the environment from toxic water pollution as required by the Clean Water Act.
The ADEQ’s permit unlawfully authorizes SWEPCO to continue discharging harmful bottom ash wastewater, which contains a slew of toxic pollutants like arsenic, mercury, selenium, and lead into waters used by people for drinking, recreation, fishing, and agriculture. The permit is unlawful because ADEQ failed to evaluate the factors for setting the deadline to end these toxic discharges, as required by the Clean Water Act’s Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) for coal waste at power plants like Flint Creek.
The ELG rule requires all wastewater permits issued after January 2016 to eliminate bottom ash wastewater discharges as soon as possible beginning November 2020 and no later than December 31, 2023. ADEQ ignored the mandatory factors it must consider in setting this deadline, including whether SWEPCO is capable of achieving compliance sooner, and issued a permit that ends on the very last day of the compliance period.
Similarly egregious is that SWEPCO, in its permit application, explicitly refused to include any evaluation of the costs, technical feasibility, or timing for complying with the EPA’s ELG Rule. Sierra Club’s challenge asks the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to vacate and remand the permit for these reasons.
Sierra Club’s request for a hearing can be found here and exhibits here.
Glen Hooks, Director of Sierra Club’s Arkansas Chapter, released the following statement:
“Sierra Club’s appeal is simple: we want SWEPCO to follow the law, and we want the state of Arkansas to require them to do so. There is no doubt the toxic wastewater continuously released by the Flint Creek coal plant is dangerous to our environment and public health. That’s why the EPA is eliminating such discharges under the Clean Water Act, a law that SWEPCO explicitly refused to follow and that ADEQ refused to properly enforce. Arkansans depend on the ADEQ to protect us from toxic pollution and the agency has let them down. The Natural State deserves better.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.