As Hurricane Sally bore down on the Gulf Coast with forecasts of 10 to 15 inches of rain, environmental advocates turned their attention to the nearly 21 million cubic yards of coal ash stored in an unlined pond at Alabama Power’s Plant Barry in north Mobile County.
Alabama Power spokesman Michael Sznajderman said Tuesday the company was “closely monitoring” the storm and executing its safety protocols. He noted the earthen dam separating the ash pond from the Mobile River received the highest rating available from the EPA during a 2010 inspection.
Mobile Baykeeper Program Director Cade Kistler said the concern is both storm surge and the slow, steady rainfall that drains into the Mobile-Tensaw Delta from points far north. “This kind of slow moving storm that fills up a watershed is definitely a big concern,” he said, noting some past coal ash spills happened days after a storm as water kept flowing downstream.
A 2018 study funded by Baykeeper found that an extreme rainfall event could raise the pond’s level by roughly 5.6 feet, leaving only a sliver of margin below the top of the dike — though Alabama Power has since raised the dam. On Tuesday, the Mobile River at Plant Barry stood near 4.8 feet and was projected to climb to about 10.3 feet by Saturday.
Kistler said his organization would keep watching the river level as Sally moved ashore, hoping the rainfall would not trigger a breach but calling the storm “another wake up call” about the risks of storing coal ash next to the river.