The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the environmental group Mobile Baykeeper has standing to sue Alabama Power over how the utility company handles a twenty million ton coal ash pond on the banks of the Mobile River.
The Alabama Public Radio newsroom focused on this issue during our national award winning investigation “Bad Chemistry.” APR Gulf coast correspondent Cori Yonge’s story on a trio of elderly women who banded together to warn of the potential threat of coal ash helped inspire the documentary “Sallie’s Ashes,” which premiered last year at the Telluride Film Festival.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama dismissed Mobile Baykeeper’s lawsuit in 2024 on what’s described as narrow technical grounds. The appellate ruling reverses that ruling. In a news release, Baykeeper said
“Today’s ruling gives the people of Coastal Alabama their day in court,” said Cade Kistler of Mobile Baykeeper. "This ruling and the community’s desire to see the coal ash removed are a turning point. Leaving 21 million tons of toxic ash in an unlined pit beside the Mobile River is an unacceptable long-term risk for this coast and for the company’s own shareholders. Alabama Power should seize this moment to negotiate a binding agreement to excavate and recycle the ash at Plant Barry like they claim to want to do.”
The Mobile-Tensaw River Delta is referred to as “America’s Amazon.” Baykeeper complains that Plant Barry’s unlined coal ash pit was built on wetlands and sits below sea level, with the ash saturated deep in groundwater. Alabama Power’s decision to store millions of tons of coal ash in a pit next to the Mobile River and Delta, the group contends, threatens continued pollution.
Baykeeper’s release goes onto say that the ruling comes on the heels of a University of Alabama study showing Plant Barry is actively polluting Mobile River sediments at levels comparable to the catastrophic 2008 Kingston spill, and the release of the documentary film Sallie’s Ashes, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and chronicles Sallie Smith’s final fight against Alabama Power’s plan to leave the coal ash in place.
