Melissa Williams, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
Media Release
April 12, 2017
Contact:
Melissa Williams, 828-545-0443, melissa.williams@sierraclub.org
Emily Driscoll, Southern Environmental Law Center, 678-686-8482, edriscoll@selcga.org
Community calls for new permit at Plant Hammond that protects
Floyd County’s public health, environment
ROME, GA—About 75 community members gathered at the state Environmental Protection Division’s public hearing tonight about its new draft water discharge permit for Plant Hammond, the coal-burning power plant located on the Coosa River.
Many hearing attendees wore black—the color of coal—to symbolize their concern about how burning coal damages the environment and the community’s public health.
Several community members spoke about how they want their grandchildren and future generations to be able to enjoy the Coosa as they have.
“It breaks my heart to know that if action is not taken to protect our water, that such beauty and enjoyment will be lost,” said Angela Greear, a local resident. “Water is a finite resource, and once gone will never return.”
Coal-fired plants like Hammond are among the biggest sources in Georgia of toxic water pollution, yet EPD’s proposed permit puts no limits on Hammond’s discharges of toxic metals, such as mercury and arsenic, into the Coosa.
New federal rules require that the plant reduce these discharges by November 2018, but EPD wants to give Georgia Power until 2023 to make Hammond comply with these critical protections.
“Action on this permit is already long overdue,” said Ian Karra, the Sierra Club’s organizing representative for the Beyond Coal campaign in Georgia. “It’s unacceptable to consider leaving the Coosa and Floyd County residents unprotected from toxic wastewater and pollutants even longer.”
The Coosa River was included on the Georgia Water Coalition’s 2016 Dirty Dozen list because of threats related to superheated wastewater discharges from Plant Hammond.
Hammond uses outdated cooling water technology requiring hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Coosa every day, killing as many as 60,000 fish and millions of fish eggs every year in the process. A cooling tower and updated intake system would reduce water usage and prevent these unnecessary fish kills. A cooling tower would also eliminate superheated discharges into the river.
EPD released its draft Hammond permit in February, about a month after Sierra Club and its allies—the Altamaha Riverkeeper, the Coosa River Basin Initiative, and the Savannah Riverkeeper—filed suit to compel EPD to revise and update long-expired National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permits on all of Georgia’s coal plants, including Hammond, which discharges into the Coosa River.
The groups have temporarily withdrawn the suit to give EPD time to issue updated permits that are consistent with the Clean Water Act, and that protect Georgia’s waterways from the heavy metals and dangerous pollutants that discharge from coal-fired power plants.
“Although we are glad EPD is finally taking action to update the permit, it’s disappointing that the draft permit fails to provide long-overdue protections to this stressed segment of the Coosa River,” said Kurt Ebersbach, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “For decades Plant Hammond has used the Coosa River in effect as the treatment system for its thermal pollution— this permit would allow it to continue to claim an unreasonably large swath of the river as a ‘sacrifice zone’ for this thermal waste.”
Sierra Club, the Coosa River Basin Initiative and the Southern Environmental Law Center will be submitting detailed written comments on the draft permit. People may submit written comments concerning the draft permit by mail or email through April 14. Email comments should include“NPDES permit reissuance — Georgia Power Company — Plant Hammond (Floyd County)” in the subject line.
A fact sheet or copy of the draft permit is available by contacting Audra Dickson, of the Wastewater Regulatory Program, at 404-463-4934 or by email at audra.dickson@dnr.ga.gov.
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 2.4 million members and supporters nationwide. In addition to creating opportunities for people of all ages, levels and locations to have meaningful outdoor experiences, the Sierra Club works to safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and litigation. For more information, visit http://www.sierraclub.org.
About Southern Environmental Law Center:
The Southern Environmental Law Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. With nine offices across the region (Charlottesville, VA; Chapel Hill, NC; Atlanta, GA; Charleston, SC; Washington, DC; Birmingham, AL; Nashville, TN; Asheville, NC; and Richmond, VA), SELC is widely recognized as the Southeast’s foremost environmental organization and regional leader. SELC works on a full range of environmental issues to protect the South’s natural resources and the health and well-being of all the people in our region. www.SouthernEnvironment.org