Alabama Power says the dam holding back a massive coal ash pond at its Plant Barry steam plant on the Mobile River is safe and reliable, even as environmental groups warn of the risks of a breach.
The plant, in Mobile County, stores about 21 million cubic yards of coal ash in an unlined pond. Mobile Baykeeper and other advocates want the utility to excavate the material and move it to a lined landfill rather than cap it in place.
Company officials point to a rigorous inspection program that they say has been in place for more than 40 years. Spokesman Michael Sznajderman said each impoundment is inspected thoroughly each year by licensed professional engineers, with more frequent checks by plant personnel.
What a failure could mean
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rated the dam at Barry’s ash pond as having a significant hazard potential, meaning a failure would be unlikely to cause loss of life but could do major economic and environmental damage. Inundation maps the company filed show a breach could spread ash as far as five miles from the dam.
Environmental groups commissioned their own dam safety report, which questioned whether self-inspections are enough and noted the pond sits in a low-lying, flood-prone area. Alabama Power maintains the dikes were designed to handle a 1,000-year flood event.
The utility has never had a major structural failure at any of its ash ponds, and all of its dams were deemed satisfactory in the most recent federal inspections.