FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Contact: Hannah Lee Flath, hannahlee.flath@sierraclub.org, 860-634-0225
Lake County Community Members, Environmental Advocates, and Elected Officials Urge State to Deny NRG Energy’s Latest Effort to Avoid Coal Ash Clean Up
Illinois Pollution Control Board holds public hearing on one of 15 petitions filed by NRG Energy seeking compliance changes and loopholes to Illinois’ coal ash rules
Waukegan, IL -- Yesterday, dozens of community residents, environmental advocates, and Waukegan Mayor Taylor urged the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) to swiftly deny NRG Energy’s request that its “Old Ash Pond” be exempt from Illinois’ coal ash rules. The Old Ash Pond is one of three ash ponds at the Waukegan lakefront site, which the IPCB previously ruled in a separate enforcement action in 2019 is responsible for ongoing groundwater contamination on the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Since the passage of the Illinois Pollution Prevention Act and the subsequent state coal ash rules that were finalized in 2021, Illinois’ large coal plant operators NRG Energy and Vistra Energy have filed dozens of petitions at the IPCB seeking delays and various forms of regulatory “relief.” Filing these types of petitions before the Board to get a free pass on state pollution requirements has been a long-standing and often successful strategy of these corporations. This tactic helped NRG subsidiary Midwest Generation win delays in meeting state air pollution rules at the Waukegan plant in 2013.
“This is NRG’s latest delay tactic to avoid cleaning up its coal ash pollution on our lakefront,” said Dulce Ortiz, Waukegan resident and Steering Committee Member of Clean Power Lake County. “We are tired of corporate polluters making their profits and leaving their mess behind. The Illinois Pollution Control Board needs to get this decision right and issue a timely ruling denying NRG’s request for a free pass on coal ash clean up.”
NRG’s “Old Ash Pond” lies just to the west of NRG’s “West and East Ash Ponds,” where thousands of tons of coal ash pollution have been dumped on the site without any liner and then covered with grass. In June of 2019, the Board found that the Old Ash Pond contributed to 163 exceedances of Illinois Groundwater Quality Standards at the Waukegan site.
“This Old Ash Pond in Waukegan is one of the most egregious examples of polluting coal ash in the state,” said Faith Bugel, an attorney with Sierra Club. “There is no question that NRG’s leaching “Old Ash Pond” must comply with Illinois’ state coal ash rules.”
Since coal ash groundwater contamination was first discovered on Waukegan’s lakefront in 2010, efforts to address the pollution have been met with fierce legal pushback from Midwest Generation and its current parent company NRG Energy. Industry delay tactics have extended the Illinois EPA (IEPA) and IPCB’s already slow administrative processes, thus obstructing the implementation of Illinois’ coal ash rules. In light of the IEPA and IPCB’s failure to enforce Illinois groundwater standards, state and municipal leaders are left to pursue coal ash clean up requirements through state legislation and local ordinances.
“Coal ash communities like Waukegan simply need strong leadership from the Pollution Control Board and Governor Pritzker’s Illinois EPA to hold these corporations accountable,” said Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor. “Our city will not be a sacrifice zone for industrial pollution anymore and our community urges the Pollution Control Board to require NRG to remove its ash from our Lake Michigan shoreline.”