Gorgas Coal Ash Hearing

12/17/21 UPDATE: The public hearing has been conducted but ADEM IS STILL ACCEPTING COMMENTS FOR PLANT GORGAS UNTIL THURSDAY, DECEMBER, 23rd AT 5 PM. Click here to submit your comments in less than two minutes!

Plant Gorgas Coal Ash: Public Hearing December 16

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is hosting a public hearing about Plant Gorgas coal ash on December 16, 6:00-7:30 PM at Parrish Town Hall (6484 Alabama 269, Parrish, AL, 35580).

ADEM’s hearing focuses on Alabama Power’s closure plans for coal ash waste storage in a massive unlined, leaking pit — known as Rattlesnake Lake — next to the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River. Rattlesnake Lake is a 420-acre unlined impoundment formed by damming Rattlesnake Creek in 1953. Closure is required by federal law because Alabama Power’s coal ash pit is situated too close to groundwater, which is being polluted with arsenic and other heavy metals. Alabama Power plans to leave their toxic coal ash next to the river and cap it in place.

Show up and/or submit written comments to share your opinion on the need for Alabama Power to excavate and remove their waste from next to the river: https://alabamacoalash.org/show-up-1/plant-gorgas-public-hearing-on-coal-ash-closure.

To learn more about the Miller, Gorgas, and Greene County Plants, and coal ash in the Black Warrior River basin, visit blackwarriorriver.org/coal-ash-and-power-plants/.

To learn more about coal ash throughout Alabama, sign up for updates, and take action, visit alabamacoalash.org/.

Aerial view of Plant Gorgas’ Rattlesnake Lake coal ash impoundment. Photo by Nelson Brooke. Flight by SouthWings.org