Earthjustice lawsuit against Gulf Power can move forward

A federal lawsuit against Gulf Power over claims that it is polluting the Apalachicola River will be allowed to move forward.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last week rejected a move to quash the lawsuit which was filed in June by the group EarthJustice.

The group filed the suit to stop toxic water pollution that they say is leaking into the Apalachicola River from an aging 40-acre coal ash dump at Gulf Power Company’s Scholz Generating Plant near Sneads.

Earthjustice filed its Clean Water Act suit in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee on behalf of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper , the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and the Waterkeeper Alliance.

The suit claims that Gulf Power has flushed millions of gallons of toxic coal ash sludge into 40 acres of unlined pits that sit atop a bluff along the Apalachicola River and now the waste is leaking out of the pits and into the river.

The pollutants include arsenic, cadmium, and chromium – as well as the neurotoxin mercury.

Gulf Power has a federal Clean Water Act permit, which allows it to discharge treated coal ash water and chlorinated condensing water directly into the Apalachicola through an outfall.

But the groups say that contamination is leaking at other points on the site and not receiving proper treatment -- and those discharges are not covered by the permit.

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