Environmental groups to sue Alliant claiming groundwater pollution

OTTUMWA, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – A number of environmental teams intend to sue Alliant Vitality’s Iowa affiliate, claiming it’s discharging polluted groundwater into waters upstream of Ottumwa and not using a allow.

The Iowa Environmental Council, Sierra Membership, and Environmental Legislation & Coverage Middle issued a letter of intent to sue, as mandated underneath the Clear Water Act, which provides the corporate 60 days to come back into compliance.

The threatened lawsuit offers with the Ottumwa Midland Landfill, a coal ash landfill that has been utilized by Interstate Energy and Mild Firm, a subsidiary of Alliant Vitality, since 1995.

The landfill has a liner that separates coal ash, or waste materials from burning coal, from the groundwater. Piping beneath the landfill removes the groundwater from beneath the liner and discharges it, at a fee of as much as 84,000 gallons per day, to a wetland that flows right into a tributary of the Des Moines River, based on the letter.

This groundwater is just not supposed to come back into contact with any of the contaminants within the landfill above it, however the environmental teams pointed to IPL monitoring information that reveals the discharge accommodates arsenic, barium, boron, calcium, cobalt, iron, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, and “other pollutants below reporting limits.”

“Thus, the underdrain water is contaminated and is not an allowed discharge under Stormwater General Permit 1,” the letter stated.

These are a number of the similar contaminants famous in a study released by IEC and the Sierra Membership in February that discovered coal ash landfills and ponds brought on heightened ranges of poisonous heavy metals and pollution in close by groundwater.

The research pulled from self-reported information at MidAmerican Vitality Firm vegetation, together with the Ottumwa Producing Station which is owned by each MidAmerican and IPL. MidAmerican, nevertheless, disputed the findings of the research.

The “underdrain” discharge from the Ottumwa landfill was lined by a stormwater discharge allow with the Iowa Division of Pure Sources, however in 2023, DNR knowledgeable the corporate that the discharge didn’t meet the definition of “uncontaminated groundwater” lined by the allow.

The letter stated IPL didn’t apply for a further allow for this discharge and subsequently “has been discharging, and continues to discharge, pollutants into waters of the United States without permit authorization.”

Melissa McCarville, a spokesperson for Alliant Vitality stated the corporate has been “actively communicating” with DNR and is “systematically working” towards an answer for the groundwater discharge.

“Alliant Energy is dedicated to serving our customers and communities throughout the state,” McCarville stated in an announcement. “Driven by our mission and core values, we are steadfast in our commitment to environmental compliance including abiding by all regulated and required groundwater monitoring processes.”

Michael Schmidt, an lawyer for Iowa Environmental Council, stated it has been “more than a year and half” since DNR knowledgeable the corporate of the allowing situation.

“It’s that ongoing delay that we are concerned about,” Schmidt stated. “We have these discharges of arsenic and other metals going into the water on a continuous basis without really any oversight from DNR, because there is no permit coverage.”

McCarville stated there may be “no reason to believe” the discharge interacted with the contents of the landfill.

“As designed and originally permitted, the system does not come into contact with the landfill’s content,” McCarville stated.

In late 2024, the corporate introduced a plan to reroute the discharge to the Des Moines River, to which IEC objected.

McCarville stated relying on evaluations and approvals, building on a brand new design for the discharge may start this spring.

The U.S. Environmental Safety Company Administrator Lee Zeldin introduced a slew of plans Wednesday to roll again sure laws on power manufacturing and to alter the definition of Waters of america, that are waters protected underneath the Clear Water Act.

Schmidt stated this may not have an effect on the intent to sue as a result of the discharge is going on in waters which are “clearly” waters of america.

“The notice letter is about a foundational element of the Clean Water Act, requiring a permit for any discharge of pollutants,” Schmidt stated.

“It’s another example of why the process that we have of burning coal to put pollutants into the air, and create the solid waste and have these water discharges, is a continuing problem. The more we do it, the more problems like this we create.”

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