The Delta\u2019s history is America\u2019s. At its heart are the island mounds of Bottle Creek,<\/a> the \u201cprincipal political and religious center\u201d for the Indigenous Pensacola culture for 300 years before European contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n About a dozen miles south, beneath the surface of the Mobile River\u2019s muddy waters, lies the wreckage of the Clotilda,<\/a> widely regarded as the last slave ship to enter the United States. And farther south, still, the Mobile River empties into Mobile Bay, itself a veritable biodiversity hotspot and the cornerstone of a vibrant coastal culture and ecosystem.<\/p>\n But all of that, many residents, experts and environmentalists say, is at risk, because of Alabama Power\u2019s coal ash waste, a toxic leftover from decades of burning coal for electricity.\u00a0<\/p>\n One 600-acre pit of the toxic coal ash lies along the banks of the Mobile River in the Upper Delta, about 25 miles north of Mobile Bay. There, smokestacks from the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant rise like a sore thumb from a horizon of green, towering over an unlined pond filled with more than 21 million tons of the toxic residue. Holding back the toxic waste from the Mobile River? Earthen dikes.<\/p>\n Alyson Tucker, media relations manager for Alabama Power, one of the nation\u2019s most profitable electric utilities<\/a> and one of the state\u2019s most powerful companies, said in an email that the company \u201cremains committed to operating in full compliance with environmental regulations. Our plans for closure and groundwater protection fully comply with current state and federal law, are approved by [the Alabama Department of Environmental Management] and are certified by professional engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDue to ongoing litigation related to Plant Barry coal ash, we are unable to comment further at this time,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n Leaving coal waste in place under engineered caps, company representatives have long argued, is safe and protective of groundwater\u2014claims that state regulators have accepted but both environmental groups and federal regulators dispute.<\/p>\n Alabama\u2019s American Amazon isn\u2019t the only area placed at risk by Alabama Power\u2019s ghosts of energy past. An Inside Climate News review of the utility\u2019s legally mandated emergency action plans shows that hundreds of square miles of land and waterways would be at risk of inundation in the event of a breach of the barriers holding back toxic waste at its six coal ash pond sites across the state. In total, more than 117 million tons of coal sludge are at issue, stored along Alabama\u2019s waterways.\u00a0<\/p>\n What to do with all that polluted material has become a controversial question, with federal and state officials at odds over the issue. In 2015, the federal government finalized a rule<\/a> tightening restriction around how coal waste could be stored. EPA left implementation of the new standards to states, but in May 2024, the agency denied the state of Alabama\u2019s plan to allow Alabama Power and other utilities to continue storing toxic coal ash in unlined pits at sites across the state. <\/a>Federal officials said the plan would not adequately protect the state\u2019s groundwater from contamination by coal ash residuals following \u201ccap-in-place\u201d closure.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder federal regulations, coal ash units cannot be closed in a way that allows coal ash to continue to spread contamination in groundwater after closure. In contrast, Alabama\u2019s permit program does not require that groundwater contamination be adequately addressed during the closure of these coal ash units,\u201d the decision said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe delta is an elegant labyrinth, full of bayous and sloughs and backwaters. If it is flooded with ash, it would be polluting forever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Cade Kistler, Mobile Baykeeper<\/p>\n More than a year after the EPA denied Alabama\u2019s coal ash plan, with the Trump administration now running the federal environmental agency, it\u2019s unclear what comes next for the toxic ponds and the government\u2019s now decade-old effort to safely close them.\u00a0<\/p>\n But one thing is certain, according to Cade Kistler, who leads Mobile Baykeeper, an environmental nonprofit<\/a> currently in litigation with Alabama Power over the coal ash lagoon at Plant Barry. Until the toxic leftovers of the company\u2019s fossil fuel commitments are moved out of groundwater and away from waterways, the delta and Mobile Bay are an Eden on the edge of disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cThe delta is an elegant labyrinth, full of bayous and sloughs and backwaters. If it is flooded with ash, it would be polluting forever,\u201d Kistler said. \u201cThere would be no way to effectively clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n The Costs of Kingston<\/p>\n The failure of a dirt dike at a coal ash pond isn\u2019t theoretical. In 2008, a coal ash impoundment in Kingston, Tennessee, breached, spilling more than a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of land and into the Emory River channel. The result was one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history.<\/a> The spill cost the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which owned the coal impoundment, over $1 billion to clean up. Ten years after the spill, dozens of the roughly 900 workers employed during the cleanup were already dead.<\/a> More than 250 were chronically ill. According to the EPA,<\/a> coal ash contains heavy metal contaminants<\/a> like mercury, cadmium and arsenic known to cause cancer and other serious effects on the nervous system, heart, kidneys and development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Alabama Power\u2019s own groundwater monitoring reports<\/a> and measurements taken by researchers from the Mobile River adjacent to Plant Barry confirm heavy metal contamination at the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe identified a significant contribution of toxic metals linked to coal ash near Sister\u2019s Creek, the man-made cooling discharge channel of Plant Barry, particularly during the dry season,\u201d one 2025 study by scientists at the University of Alabama and Texas A&M Universities concluded.<\/a>\u00a0 The peer-reviewed paper also pointed to the impacts of climate change as another reason to be wary of Alabama Power\u2019s storage of coal ash on waterways.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a plausible concern for acute and chronic toxic metals environmental pollution from the Alabama ash pond, considering rising seawater levels and more frequent severe storm surges in the region since its initial construction,\u201d the study said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The volume of coal ash material stored at Plant Barry alone is more than four times that of the sludge that spilled in Kingston in 2008, according to company figures. That fact alone should worry anyone concerned about Alabama\u2019s environment, said Diane Thomas, one of three self-proclaimed \u201ccoal ash grannies\u201d featured in a new documentary about Plant Barry\u2019s coal lagoons, Sallie\u2019s Ashes.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Thomas spent three decades living on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.<\/p>\n \u201cI have kayaked and sailed,\u201d she said. \u201cI swam. I crabbed. I fished. My love for the bay and what you can do on the bay runs deep.\u201d<\/p>\n It was an easy \u201cyes,\u201d then, when her decades-long friend Sallie Smith asked Thomas and another friend, Savan Wilson, to help her fight against Alabama Power\u2019s plans to leave coal ash beside the Mobile River. Smith had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and felt she needed to spend her remaining time advocating to protect the bay she\u2019d grown to adore. The trio founded the Coal Ash Action Group,<\/a> a grassroots organization committed to educating Alabamians about an issue unknown to many.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thomas, a retired clinical psychologist, said it\u2019s easy to fight for something so dear to so many. For decades, the delta and the bay have been an integral part of her family\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n She smiled as she recalled her first jubilee,<\/a> a naturally occurring event where low oxygen levels in Mobile Bay cause marine life to flee toward shore.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing like catching your own crabs,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHave you ever cleaned 200 crabs? Your thumbs are just raw.\u201d<\/p>\n After her husband was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, no longer able to work, he began to fish almost daily. With aggressive treatment, he survived the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe ate fresh fish for about eight years\u2014four times a week,\u201d Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That type of close connection with the water is something Thomas feels shouldn\u2019t be put at risk unnecessarily by an electric utility.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA Knife to Your Throat\u201d<\/p>\n Alabama Power\u2019s legally-mandated emergency action plan for Plant Barry shows that if earthen dikes separating the coal ash from the Mobile River were to breach, around 25 square miles of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta would be inundated with coal slurry, covering dozens of miles of the Mobile, Middle and Tensaw Rivers, just upstream of Mobile Bay. From there, the toxic sludge would diffuse throughout the region, with the state\u2019s rivers acting as a heart, pumping the liquid farther and farther from Plant Barry.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut instead of lifeblood, it\u2019s pumping coal waste that would kill the environment,\u201d Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n David Bronner, the prominent CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, recently called Plant Barry\u2019s coal ash pond \u201ca huge environmental bomb\u201d in a newsletter<\/a> sent to state retirees.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need your cooperation again for South Alabama,\u201d Bronner wrote in an open appeal to Alabama\u2019s congressional delegation. \u201cNot for new jobs, but for solving an old problem that still exists. That problem hangs over all of Alabama, like a knife to your throat: the coal ash dump that sits next to Mobile Bay. No one should forget what the Tennessee coal ash dump did to that state. A breach of the Mobile site would clearly damage Mobile Bay for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas believes Bronner\u2019s assessment is on target.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cade Kistler, Mobile\u2019s Baykeeper, said it\u2019s important to remember that environmental harm can lead to economic pain, too, for individuals and businesses alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere would be a huge impact on the people that want to fish in Mobile Bay and use it for their livelihoods,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there are also those people that live on its shores\u2014a lot of beautiful homes and properties. Those Zillow listings won\u2019t look quite so good if a coal ash breach occurs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kistler also pointed out that BP\u2019s 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which crippled the Gulf Coast environmentally and economically, involved about 134 million gallons of oil,<\/a> 20 times less than the volume of coal slurry disposed of at Plant Barry. Those who lived through the aftermath of the oil spill on the Gulf Coast remember the deep impact it had on coastal communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n A coal ash breach could be even worse, Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf a breach occurred, we would be the most industrially polluted site in the nation, and we know that pollution wouldn\u2019t just go away,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s why she and Wilson have committed themselves to informing others across the state about the dangers of the waste, something they now do in memory of Smith, who died of cancer in October 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSallie\u2019s focus was on connecting people in search of our common humanity, and in seeking to deepen our understanding and compassion for one another,\u201d her obituary read.<\/a> \u201cThis ardent effort was an outgrowth and demonstration of her deep faith. She loved her family, Mobile Bay, country music, her many friends, including her hiking group of intrepid college friends, and all God\u2019s people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPray We Don\u2019t Have a Hurricane\u201d<\/p>\n While there\u2019s still much to be done to contain the coal ash threat, Thomas said, there have been at least some glimmers of hope. In early 2024, Alabama Power confirmed a plan<\/a> to contract a company called Eco Materials to remove and recycle some of the coal waste stored at Plant Barry.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since then, however, there has been little in the way of substantive public updates about the project, which company officials previously said would begin recycling coal ash into construction materials like concrete in January 2026. In response to an inquiry from Inside Climate News, a representative for Alabama Power said the recycling facility is \u201cexpected to be in service by early 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Eco Materials was acquired by materials company CRH in July 2025, according to an announcement.<\/a> Neither Eco Materials nor CRH responded to a request for a detailed update on the recycling plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Thomas said that even the conception of a plan is a step in the right direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to recycle as much as possible and just pray we don\u2019t have a hurricane,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kistler said he fears just that. An extreme weather event or other emergency could leave a world-renowned environmental gem drowned in polluted sludge.<\/p>\n Alabama Power\u2019s emergency action plans, bare-bones documents required by federal law, provide only limited information about what could occur if a breach happened at its coal ash sites across the state. The documents also provide little real-world information about how the company would approach mitigation, clean up and remediation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding extreme weather, the 39-page emergency plan<\/a> for Plant Barry mentions only that if severe weather causes road closures during an emergency dam breach, company response times may be delayed. Despite Plant Barry\u2019s location in south Alabama, the word \u201churricane\u201d does not appear in the emergency action plan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s foolhardy,\u201d Kistler said. \u201cThere needs to be more detail.\u201d<\/p>\n Regulators have agreed. In January 2023, the EPA issued Alabama Power a notice of potential violation<\/a> informing the company that, in the agency\u2019s view, it had violated federal regulations because its groundwater monitoring program and emergency action plan were not adequate.<\/p>\n The agency settled that dispute<\/a> with Alabama Power in 2024 when the company agreed to \u201cevaluate and expand its groundwater monitoring program at Plant Barry, to review and upgrade its Emergency Action Plan, and to pay a civil penalty of $278,000,\u201d according to the EPA.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than a year later, a representative of the utility told members of Alabama\u2019s Public Service Commission that an updated emergency action plan is still in the works.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe emergency action plan will be modified to include additional wording and descriptions to clarify the company\u2019s preparedness for extreme weather conditions,\u201d Dustin Brooks, land compliance manager for Alabama Power, told commissioners on Dec. 9.<\/p>\n \u201cI just hope that outside this public document, they\u2019ve got better plans somewhere,\u201d Kistler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n A previously available copy of the EPA\u2019s settlement agreement with Alabama Power has been removed from the agency\u2019s website,<\/a> though the press release<\/a> announcing the agreement remains. \u201cThis Initiative is needed given the breadth and scope of observed noncompliance with the federal coal ash regulations,\u201d the agency said.\u00a0<\/p>\n An executive of Alabama Power, which owns most of the state\u2019s coal ash units, claimed at a September 2023 EPA hearing that the utility\u2019s storage ponds are \u201cstructurally sound.\u201d Susan Comensky, Alabama Power\u2019s then-vice president of environmental affairs, told EPA officials that allowing the company to \u201ccap\u201d coal ash waste in place, even in unlined pits, will not present significant risks to human or environmental health.<\/p>\n \u201cEven today, before closure is complete, we know of no impact to any source of drinking water at or around any Alabama Power ash pond,\u201d Comensky said at the time.<\/p>\n However, Alabama Power has been repeatedly fined for leaking coal ash waste into groundwater.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2019, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) fined the utility $250,000 after groundwater monitoring at a disposal site on the Coosa River in Gadsden showed elevated levels of arsenic and radium, according to regulatory documents.<\/p>\n In 2018, ADEM fined Alabama Power<\/a> a total of $1.25 million for groundwater contamination, records show. In its order issuing the fine, the agency cited the utility\u2019s own groundwater testing data, which showed elevated levels of arsenic, lead, selenium and beryllium.<\/p>\n Plant Barry is just one of Alabama Power\u2019s six plant sites across the state that store coal ash. In all, the slurry lagoons cover a footprint of around 2,000 acres and pose unique risks to groundwater and waterways around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n A now capped-in-place coal ash impoundment at Plant Gadsden, for example, is still contaminating groundwater more than seven years after its closure, according to Alabama Power\u2019s groundwater monitoring reports and a lawsuit filed against the utility by Coosa Riverkeeper,<\/a> an environmental nonprofit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe citizens of Gadsden and folks who depend on Neely Henry Lake deserve so much better than Alabama Power\u2019s legacy of pollution,\u201d Justinn Overton, executive director and riverkeeper at Coosa Riverkeeper, said in a news release after the lawsuit was filed. \u201cDrinking water supply, booming ecotourism, and hard-working Alabamians are all threatened by Alabama Power\u2019s recklessness.\u201d<\/p>\n In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit over groundwater contamination at Plant Gadsden, lawyers for Alabama Power emphasized that state regulators approved the company\u2019s plans for coal ash waste at the site.\u00a0<\/p>\n When groundwater monitoring identified elevated levels of contaminants, the lawyers wrote, \u201cAlabama Power worked with professional engineers and the public to design and implement a corrective action program to address those exceedances\u2014a program certified as compliant with the federal CCR rule and that will continue as part of \u2018post-closure care.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n While the suit should be dismissed due to an expired statute of limitations, Alabama Power\u2019s attorneys argued, the court should also decline to second guess the decision of state regulators to approve the company\u2019s actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Coosa Riverkeeper] asks the Court to turn back the clock, to before 2020, to second-guess the groundwater monitoring system and closure decisions\u2014work completed long ago, approved by state regulators, and certified by professional engineers as compliant,\u201d the motion said.<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n Donate Now<\/a> <\/p>\n Plants Barry, Gorgas, Greene County and Miller have been designated as having \u201csignificant hazard potential\u201d under federal law. Plant Gaston, located near the town of Wilsonville in Shelby County, has been designated as having \u201chigh hazard potential.\u201d<\/p>\n Following an emergency dam break at that site, which the company deems \u201cunlikely,\u201d Alabama Power\u2019s initial hazard potential assessment concluded that \u201cwater and [coal ash] could potentially impact the residential neighborhood to the west, and the Coosa River to the south\u2026failure or misoperation of the [coal ash] unit could potentially result in a loss of human life.\u201d<\/p>\n Kistler said that it\u2019s notable that Alabama Power is unique among southern utilities in leaving all of its coal waste in unlined pits along waterways. Georgia Power, another subsidiary of Southern Company, has already shifted toward more appropriate disposal of at least some of its coal ash in lined landfills. It\u2019s not a question then, Kistler said, of whether Alabama Power can do the same. It\u2019s only a question of if it will.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like we\u2019re paying premium prices, and we\u2019re getting bargain-bin environmental protections,\u201d he said, making a reference to Alabama Power\u2019s highest average residential electric bills in the nation.<\/a> \u201cIf Georgia can do it, why not us?\u201d<\/p>\n A Coal Legacy and a Fossil-Fueled Future<\/p>\n Barry Brock, with the Southern Environmental Law Center<\/a>, is part of the team of lawyers suing Alabama Power over its coal ash impoundment at Plant Barry. Initially dismissed by a Trump-appointed U.S. district court judge on technical grounds, the case is now pending before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where Brock said he is hopeful the team will secure a victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oral arguments in the case were held in Atlanta in November, and some of Alabama Power\u2019s arguments were unusually revealing, Brock said.<\/p>\n \u201cAlabama Power admits that a lot of the coal ash is going to be left in contact with groundwater under their closure plan,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s particularly galling.\u201d<\/p>\n Coal ash isn\u2019t SELC\u2019s first legal tussle with Alabama Power, however. Lawyers for the environmental nonprofit are also representing customers suing Alabama Power<\/a> over residential solar fees they argue violate the law and discourage the use of renewable energy. In response, the company has said that it \u201csupport[s] customers interested in using onsite generation, such as solar\u201d but that its rate structure for those customers must avoid \u201cunfairly shifting\u201d costs to other ratepayers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the company has doubled down on its fossil fuel investments, purchasing a natural gas plant<\/a> in Autauga County for around $622 million, effectively locking the company into the continued use of fossil fuels for years to come, though the company said in an email that its investments are data-driven, forward-looking and \u201care not based on a preference for any one fuel source.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n All of these developments are individually concerning, Brock said, and together, they demonstrate a pattern.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt sends a pretty clear message that Alabama Power is really concerned about their financial well-being and the rate of return they get on fossil fuel infrastructure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt says they have a pretty compliant regulatory environment that is not going to scrutinize them when they want to raise rates for customers to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n While the company clearly has the resources to line its coal ash ponds and recycle much of the waste, there\u2019s also little doubt that the state can count on much more sympathetic federal regulators under the Trump EPA than it did under Democratic leadership. At present, the state and federal governments seem closely aligned: Twinkle Cavanaugh recently resigned<\/a> after 13 years as president of the state\u2019s Public Service Commission, the agency charged with regulating Alabama Power. Her new position: a job as the Trump administration\u2019s top Department of Agriculture official in Yellowhammer State.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n Thank you,<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AlabamaCoalAshPonds3_700px.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Alabama](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DJI_0429.jpg\"\/)
Alabama Power\u2019s coal ash storage lagoon at its Greene County plant sits next to the Black Warrior River. Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"Diane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-15-at-9.42.49-AM-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
Diane Thomas shows community members a hand-colored map of Plant Barry\u2019s inundation zone. Credit: Courtesy of Sallie\u2019s Ashes<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CoalAshPondMobileBayAla1000px.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Cade](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CADE-KISTLER-e1680613854649.jpg\"\/)
Cade Kistler serves as Baykeeper for Mobile Baykeeper, an environmental nonprofit. Credit: Courtesy of Mobile Baykeeper<\/p>\n![\"Eco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_9559-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
Eco Materials was contracted to recycle some coal waste from Plant Barry, but updates on the project have been rare. Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DJI_0315.jpg\"\/)
The smokestacks of Plant Barry rise above the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/COALASH_HEDGEPETH8-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
A protestor confronts EPA officials at a public hearing on coal ash in Montgomery, Ala. Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"Coal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Jefferson-County-coal_Credit-Lee-Hedgepeth-1024x768.jpg\"\/)
Coal ash is the primary waste product of burning coal to produce electricity at facilities like this one in Jefferson County, Alabama. Credit: Lee Hedgepeth\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"Lee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screen-Shot-2023-09-05-at-2.15.11-PM-300x300.png\"\/)
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