Environmental Justice Advocates Hold Press Conference in the Aftermath of Coal Ash Dust Cloud at Dallman Coal Plant

SPRINGFIELD, IL -- Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, and the Springfield Branch of the NAACP held a press conference today in the aftermath of an incident at the Dallman coal plant owned by the City of Springfield, and which released a lung-burning coal ash dust cloud into the air. City Water, Light, and Power’s Dallman coal plant malfunctioned on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 31, 2021. Images of the dangerous dust cloud at the CWLP coal plant are linked here, courtesy of Elizabeth Scrafford. 

“The era of coal ash is coming to an end,” said Andrew Rehn, Water Resources Engineer with the Prairie Rivers Network. “As legislators in the capitol grapple with bringing Illinois to a clean energy future, the city and the communities it supports are dealing with the pollution from coal now. Incidents like the fly ash leak last Tuesday remind us that coal is a dirty fuel source throughout its entire lifecycle. Even as coal plants close, we will be left with its dirty legacy in the form of coal ash impoundments, landfills, and dumps. We need to make sure these messes are cleaned up and not left behind.”

Coal ash is considered as an environmental hazard worldwide, since it can contain toxic metals and dangerous constituents like lead, mercury, arsenic, selenium, boron, vanadium, and chromium and the radionuclide's uranium and thorium. The core concern raised by local activists was that CWLP made no effort before or after the event to reach out to community members, provide safety instructions, or follow up with guidance on potential health impacts from exposure.

“I am a severe asthma sufferer, and the doctors determined that the pollution actually got in my lungs and caused irritants in my heart,” said Teresa Haley, Local and State President of the NAACP Illinois, who spoke about her personal health story from last week’s coal ash incident. She continued, “I am afraid to be outside at this point, because my life is at risk. We need to close down these coal ash refineries because of what it’s doing to pollution and to individuals. It kills.” 

In 2017, the Sierra Club, the NAACP, and the Prairie Rivers Network filed a complaint against CWLP with the Pollution Control Board. The complaint stated that there had been 623 instances of self-reported groundwater violations at the coal ash site since 2010. These included violations for elevated levels of arsenic, lead, boron, chromium, manganese, iron and other pollutants.

“We are living in the future and now alternatives exist,” said Sierra Club Illinois ExCom member and Urgent Care Physician Assistant Erin Kirkpatrick. “I do not want to subsidize our electricity with the health of my neighbors.”