Environmental groups to sue Alliant who claim groundwater pollution

According to the law on Clean Water, environmental groups try to sue a coal operator in Iowa who claims that he relieves contaminated water without permission by coal ash. (Photo by Monty Rakusen about Getty Images)

Several environmental groups intend to sue the IOWA partner of Alliant Energy and claim that it is released into water upstream from Ottumwa without permission.

The Iowa Environmental Council, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Law & Policy Center have published a declaration of intent as to be prescribed according to the law on Clean Water Act, which gives the company for 60 days to comply with compliance.

The impending lawsuit deals with the Ottumwa Midland landfill, a coal powers that has been used by the Interstate Power and Light Company, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy since 1995.

Subscribe: Let the morning headlines delivered to your inbox

The landfill has a liner that separates coal or waste material from the combustion of coal from the groundwater. The groundwater removes the pipelines under the landfill under the lining and loads it into a wetland at a speed of up to 84,000 gallons per day, which, according to which, according to which flows into a tributary of the Moines River letter.

This groundwater should not come into contact with one of the contamination at the landfill, but the environmental groups pointed out to IPL -monitoring data that contains the discharge Arsen, barium, boron, calcium, cobalt, iron, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, zinc and “other pollutants below the reporting limits”.

“Therefore, the undercut water is contaminated and is not a permissible discharge according to rainwater general license 1,” says the letter.

These are some of the same contaminants that were found in a study published by IEC and the Sierra Club In February, the coal ash and ponds in the nearby groundwater caused an increased level of toxic heavy metals and pollutants.

The study was drawn from self-reported data from Midamerican Energy Company systems, including the Ottumwa generation station, which belongs to both Midamerican and IPL. However, Midamerican contested the results of the study.

The relaxation of the Ottumwa landfill was covered by a rainwater discharge permit with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, but in 2023 the company informed the company that the discharge did not correspond to the definition of “non -contaminated groundwater”, which was covered by the approval.

The letter states that IPL has not applied for any additional approval for this discharge and therefore “released and relieves the theater in water in the United States waters without permission”.

Melissa McCarville, a spokesman for Alliant Energy, said that the company had “proactively” changed the approval and “actively communicated with the department” while “systematically working for a solution for the groundwater discharge”.

“Alliant Energy is devoting herself to the servant of our customers and communities throughout the state,” said McCarville in a statement. “Driven by our mission and basic values, we are steadfast in our commitment to environmental compliance, including compliance with all regulated and necessary groundwater monitoring processes.”

Michael Schmidt, a lawyer of the Iowa Environmental Council, said that it had been “more than one and a half years” since the approval question was confirmed.

“It is this persistent delay that we are concerned about,” said Schmidt. “We continuously have these discharges of arsenic and other metals into the water without really being observed because there is no approval cover.”

McCarville said there was “no reason to believe” that the dismissal interacted with the content of the landfill.

“How designed and originally allowed, the system does not come into contact with the content of the landfill,” said McCarville.

At the end of 2024, the company A announced plan To redirect the discharge into that of the Moines River, to the IEC objection.

McCarville said that depending on reviews and permits, the construction of a new design for discharge could begin this spring.

The US administrator of the environmental protection authority Lee Zeldin announced A known Plans Wednesday to recall certain regulations for energy generation and to change the definition of water from the United States that are protected according to the law on clean water.

Schmidt said this would not sue the intention to sue, since the discharge occurs in waters that are “clearly” waters of the United States.

“The announcement letter is a fundamental element of the law on clean water that requires permission to release pollutants,” said Schmidt.

“It is another example of why the process that we have with the combustion of coal in order to put pollutants into the air, to create firm waste and to have these water drainage is a persistent problem. The more we do, the more problems we can do. “

This article has been updated to clarify the discovery of the approval problem.

Support: You enable our work