{"id":292309,"date":"2026-09-23T15:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/292309\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:14:10","slug":"federal-court-oks-lawsuit-over-coal-ash-pollution-in-pennsylvanias-susquehanna-river-basin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/292309\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court OKs Lawsuit Over Coal Ash Pollution in Pennsylvania\u2019s Susquehanna River Basin"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa.\u2014 A federal court has denied<\/a> a motion to dismiss the Center for Biological Diversity\u2019s lawsuit challenging two related companies\u2019 failure to control pollution risks from toxic coal ash at a power plant on the banks of the Susquehanna River in York Haven, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a positive step for the Susquehanna River and everyone in Pennsylvania. Now we can move forward to fight the pollution risks of this huge coal ash basin,\u201d said Ragan Whitlock, an attorney at the Center. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t take a lawsuit to get this plant to comply with decade-old monitoring requirements, but in the absence of meaningful oversight we\u2019ll need the courts to protect our environment. We can\u2019t let people and wildlife be endangered by this toxic waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talen Energy Corp. and Brunner Island, LLC, are storing coal ash in in-ground impoundments at their mixed coal- and natural gas-fired plant along the river. The lawsuit focuses on inspection and monitoring failures at coal ash basin 5, which holds 5.5 million cubic yards of this waste. That\u2019s about 20% more than the interior volume of the Superdome in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Pennsylvania denied the companies\u2019 motion to dismiss the Center\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, stating \u201caccording to the complaint, Ash Basin 5 is leaching arsenic to the local area\u2019s groundwater. Under current EPA regulations, Brunner should be taking certain remedial measures it is currently not taking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1,490-megawatt Brunner Island power plant generates and stores large amounts of coal-combustion residual waste, including fly ash and bottom ash, in in-ground impoundments.<\/p>\n

This coal ash waste \u2014 a toxic mixture left over after coal is burned \u2014 contains a host of heavy metals and contaminants, including cadmium<\/a>, chromium, lead, radium and arsenic. The waste can pollute waterways and poison wildlife and people.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal and state environmental agencies have failed to enforce the law at this site,\u201d said Jim Hecker, a senior attorney with Public Justice\u2019s Environmental Enforcement Project. \u201cWe therefore brought this citizen suit to compel Brunner Island\u2019s compliance with the national minimum criteria for coal ash storage and groundwater protection in the federal regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the company\u2019s public reports<\/a>, in the first quarter of 2024 high levels of lithium, aluminum, arsenic, molybdenum and manganese were found in the groundwater in several monitoring wells downstream from the coal ash basin.<\/p>\n

Arsenic exposure can lead to nervous system damage, cardiovascular harm and a number of cancers in humans. It can also harm the many animals and plants in the Susquehanna River basin.<\/p>\n

Brunner Island\u2019s documents indicate that coal ash basin 5 is filled with toxic coal ash at depths of up to 40 feet, 15 feet of which are below the groundwater line. The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that groundwater is a liquid within the meaning of the regulation. The court found that, per the allegations in the complaint, this basin is considered a \u201cinactive surface impoundment\u201d and subject to regulations that require additional monitoring, and if necessary, remedial action.<\/p>\n

The Center\u2019s lawsuit says the Brunner Island facility has not conducted the inspection, groundwater monitoring or corrective action required by the EPA for coal ash basin 5. Specifically, Brunner Island has not developed the required groundwater sampling and analysis program or evaluated groundwater monitoring data for increases in pollutants.<\/p>\n

Brunner Island has also failed to disclose this information on a publicly available website, which is required by the EPA. These disclosures allow people to be aware of potential risks of fishing or swimming in the Susquehanna River.<\/p>\n

Coal-fired steam electric plants are the largest<\/a> industrial source of toxic water pollution in the United States.<\/p>\n

The Center is represented by Public Justice\u2019s Environmental Enforcement Project<\/a>, Steve Harvey Law LLC<\/a>, and in-house counsel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa.\u2014 A federal court has denied a motion to dismiss the Center for Biological Diversity\u2019s lawsuit challenging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-292309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}