At a community meeting last week, Waukegan and Lake County residents joined Clean Power Lake County (CPLC) in calling on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to hold NRG Energy accountable and enforce a timeline for coal ash cleanup at the Waukegan Generating Station. They urged EPA to move forward with its proposal to deny NRG Energy’s request to continue dumping coal ash and other wastewater into inadequately lined storage ponds. They also urged EPA to adopt the strictest rules possible and ensure toxic coal ash is cleaned up for good.

EPA recently released a proposed determination that would deny NRG Energy’s request for an extension to close one of its unlined ash ponds on the shores of Lake Michigan. Under federal coal ash rules, operators were required to close unlined coal ash ponds by April 2021. However, NRG Energy filed an extension request to prolong that deadline to June 2023, and continues to actively discharge wastewater into the pond. The proposed decision to deny NRG’s extension request is available for public comment until August 4, 2023.

While NRG Energy retired the last two coal-fired generating units at the Waukegan station in June 2022, the company continues to operate an electric peaking unit with diesel fuel. The peaking unit is a significant concern to the community and may be connected to the wastewater being discharged into the east ash pond.

NRG’s Waukegan site has two active ash ponds and a legacy ash pond that the Illinois Pollution Control Board (IPCB) ruled in 2019 was responsible for ongoing groundwater contamination. The ongoing litigation before the IPCB—brought by Sierra Club, Prairie Rivers Network, Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, and the Environmental Law & Policy Center—is still pending as appropriate remedies and penalties are being assessed.

Activists: Close coal ash loopholes

The community meeting in Waukegan came the day before a public hearing in Chicago on the agency’s latest proposed coal ash rules, which are intended to close loopholes for legacy ash in the original 2015 federal rules. The EPA’s proposed federal rules are open for public comment until July 17, 2023.

In response to EPA’s proposals, Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, Clean Power Lake County, and Sierra Club Illinois released the following statement: 

“The City of Waukegan is on the path toward mitigating decades of environmental hazards and economic revitalization for the betterment of our community. Waukegan needs the federal and state EPAs to join us in ensuring NRG Energy cleans up its coal ash pollution on our lakefront,” said Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor. “I urge the US EPA to finalize strict federal coal ash rules that close all industry loopholes and, most importantly, I urge them to enforce all coal ash standards so that polluter accountability is not left to community residents and municipalities like Waukegan.”

“The US EPA’s proposed denial of NRG’s request is welcomed, but it falls short of the action and accountability we need from the agency to stop the ongoing coal ash contamination of the groundwater on our lakefront,” said Clean Power Lake County co-chair Dulce Ortiz. “Community residents and partners have fought for too long to hold this corporation accountable and it’s time for federal and state agencies to demonstrate real leadership and hold NRG accountable for well-known pollution violations and require them to remove coal ash waste from the lakefront.”

“At every turn, NRG Energy has sought delays and exemptions from federal and state coal ash rules, leaving Waukegan in the lurch as the corporation’s toxic coal ash continues to contaminate groundwater on the shores of Lake Michigan,” said Christine Nannicelli, Senior Campaign Representative with Sierra Club Illinois. “EPA’s proposed decision to deny NRG’s latest loophole request is an obvious choice to ensure coal ash contamination in Waukegan isn’t further exacerbated. Still, neither the federal EPA nor Illinois EPA have delivered a coal ash cleanup plan for the community, and both agencies must close regulatory loopholes, require NRG to remove its ash from groundwater, and actually enforce these critical standards.”