Burning coal to generate electricity is fast becoming an artifact of a bygone era in Illinois.
But while most of the state’s coal-fired power plants will be scrapped before the end of the decade, toxic waste left behind by energy companies could endanger public health and the environment for years to come.
Dumps of water-soaked coal ash scattered around the state are chock-full of arsenic, boron, chromium, lead and other heavy metals. Nearly all of them are leaching pollution into lakes, rivers and groundwater near low-income communities, state records show.
Drinking water supplies are threatened near 10 of the 24 coal plant sites, including two in Will County. Another in north suburban Waukegan is contaminating groundwater that flows toward Lake Michigan.
After decades of scant oversight, energy companies face new state regulations that require them to clean up sites contaminated with coal ash pollution. The largely unlined dumps will be sealed or, in some cases, the noxious gunk will be excavated and moved to licensed landfills.
Instead of banning sludge storage outright, state officials are allowing companies to suggest a preferred option to close each site, then giving environmental groups and community leaders chances to challenge the industry’s plans at public hearings and in written comments.
“It’s going to take years to debate the merits of each closure plan,” said Andrew Rehn, water resources engineer for the Champaign-based Prairie Rivers Network, one of the nonprofit groups that has been pushing for years to clean up the pollution. “That means we are going to be very busy making sure these sites are closed safely.”
An early test of the regulations involves an unlined quarry in Will County filled with years of waste from a Joliet coal plant built by Commonwealth Edison and now owned by NRG Energy, which converted it to burn natural gas.
NRG wants to cap the Lincoln Stone Quarry with an impermeable membrane topped with soil or artificial turf. Citing the company’s own studies, environmental groups contend that nearby wells would still be threatened by coal ash stored below the water table.
If state regulators determine NRG’s proposal falls short of what the law requires, the company estimates it could cost $95 million and take 20 years to excavate 2.6 million tons of coal ash dumped into the quarry. But potentially faster and less expensive methods will be studied.
“Closure plans are in process and will comply with all applicable regulations,” the company said in a statement.
Another coal ash dump is polluting the state’s only national scenic river. Owners of a now-defunct power plant deposited their waste in the flood plain of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River, and over time the river’s natural flow undercut a barrier of rock-filled wire baskets between the coal ash and the water.
Steady trickles of pollution stain the bank metallic hues of orange and purple. The current owner, Texas-based Vistra, wants to pile an even bigger wall of rocks along a stretch of the river nearly six football fields long — an option seen by critics as temporary at best.
In addition to the new state regulations, Vistra faces a lawsuit filed by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul that accuses the company of violating several environmental laws.
Vistra announced last year it will close the rest of its coal plants by 2028. The company wants to leave in place most of the coal ash, a liability it took on after a corporate merger just a few years ago.
“We are completing our diligence, collecting data, and conducting site-specific analysis to ensure that each applicable ash pond unit is appropriately closed in a manner that is protective of the environment and health of the community,” Meranda Cohn, a Vistra spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Metals-laden sludge is among several health threats from coal plants that once provided more than half of the electricity generated in Illinois.
Despite well-documented dangers, dumps surrounding coal plants are regulated far more loosely than household garbage landfills. Clout-heavy utilities and coal companies blocked several attempts during the 1990s and 2000s to classify coal ash as hazardous waste, then delayed action by challenging regulations adopted by the Obama administration in 2015.
Jenny Cassel, a Chicago-based attorney for the nonprofit legal group Earthjustice, said the need for more rigorous oversight is highlighted by dumps in Tennessee and North Carolina that ruptured and caused millions of dollars in damage.
Armed with years of reports documenting pollution detected in monitoring wells, Cassel’s organization and other environmental groups appealed to state regulatory agencies and the courts.
In 2019, the Illinois Pollution Control Board ruled that four coal plants owned by NRG are responsible for polluted groundwater near the sites. Concentrations of heavy metals are up to 443 times higher than allowed at plants in Joliet, Pekin in Tazewell County, Romeoville and Waukegan, according to reports filed by the company.
The ruling came a week after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation requiring NRG and other plant owners to set aside money to ensure their coal ash dumps are safely closed.
“They will need to take progressive steps to address how they are going to close out these sites,” said John Kim, director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
At the federal level, an appellate court ruled in 2018 that Obama-era regulations weren’t tough enough and did nothing to prevent leaks at scores of ash dumps. The Trump administration responded to the court order with an even weaker set of rules, but President Joe Biden has promised to revisit the issue and has said he will crack down on pollution in vulnerable communities.
“It looks like we finally have government agencies on our side,” said Celeste Flores, co-chair of the Clean Power Lake County community group. “But it’s taken too long to get to this point, and we still have a lot of work to do.”
mhawthorne@chicagotribune.com
