PIERCE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by neighbors of the former Walter C. Beckjord coal plant, which may prompt local officials to weigh in with their own concerns about buried waste and potential groundwater contamination.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Barrett issued the Sept. 29 ruling in a case that was filed by more than 100 Pierce Township residents against the site’s owner, Commercial Liability Partners, nearly four years ago.
Residents and local leaders are concerned about the 6 million cubic yards of coal ash that are stored in unlined man-made pits or ponds perched along the Ohio River, which is a source of drinking water for more than 5 million people.
The ponds are in the river’s floodplain and directly upgradient from county public drinking water wells that serve 130,000 people.
“The contamination of a vast area of Clermont County in this case — whether it's going to be cleaned up, or whether it's going to be covered up — is at stake,” said attorney Dave Altman, who represents Neighbors Opposing Pit Expansion (NOPE), a nonprofit comprised of people who live nearby.
An attorney for Missouri-based CLP and subsidiary New Richmond Development Corp., declined to comment. Court filings show the company denies liability.
Built in the 1950s as a coal-burning giant, the Beckjord plant pumped electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Southwest Ohio.
The W.C. Beckjord Station, a closed Duke Energy power plant located 20 miles east of Cincinnati, contains more than 10 billion pounds of toxins that are packed into ponds along the banks of the Ohio River.
Duke Energy closed Beckjord in 2014 and sold the 1,400-acre site to CLP four years later for $105 million. CLP assumed the environmental liability and hopes to redevelop the site, according to court documents.
Many residents want CLP to remove the toxic coal ash from leaking, unlined pits and relocate it to a lined sanitary landfill.
CLP’s contractors moved coal ash from the oldest unlined pond on site, Pond A, to another unlined pond further south, Pond C, worrying many residents.
“I think the situation at Beckjord is a very serious issue for both Pierce Township and for New Richmond and all of Clermont County,” Pierce Township Trustee Allen Freeman said. “We have a pretty serious legacy environmental issue that needs to be addressed.”
In his recent order, Barrett ruled that a 1986 agreement between then Beckjord owner Cincinnati Gas & Electric is still in effect. This guarantees NOPE and Pierce Township more information about what is happening at the site.
CLP had argued that the agreement expired in 2016.
That ruling opened the door for Pierce Township to intervene in the case or file an amicus brief as an interested party.
“At minimum what I would like to see is an amicus brief to at least move this case forward,” said Freeman, who expects trustees to discuss it at the Nov. 8 meeting.
Freeman hopes that Pierce Township’s involvement could prompt the judge to move the case along faster. After nearly four years, no trial date has been set. Meanwhile, CLP sold 294 acres to a Brown County developer who has not disclosed future plans.
“I’d rather see a decision from the court, a final decision, sooner than later,” Freeman said. “When you see a jurisdiction step forward and say ‘We care about this, this is important. We need this thing finished. I think that provides an additional level of, I would hope, urgency.”
This lawsuit may resolve numerous complaints from residents and local officials. In the past three years, WCPO has reported on blowing clouds of fly ash, ground and drinking water concerns, a smokestack that fell into the Ohio River during demolition, an experimental plan to inject new chemicals into groundwater, and missing groundwater monitoring wells.
“There’s been a lack of communication from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to the township. We’ve seen on multiple occasions -the story you did with regards to the monitoring well - We didn’t even know they were gone until we saw it on television,” Freeman said. “For us, there’s a lack of trust.”
In a July interview with WCPO, Clermont County Commissioner David Painter said he was concerned about public drinking water after the Ohio EPA approved an experimental project at Beckjord to inject new chemicals into the groundwater.
"The county supports its residents' effort to assure that CLP/NRDC comply with their obligations," according to a statement from Clermont County's environmental lawyer, Scott Doran.
"The county also urges the court to timely consider and decide the crucial issues presented in the litigation ... and to assure that coal ash does not continue to contaminate groundwater, threaten public drinking water supplies and present a nuisance to the community," Doran said.
Duke Energy has already taken an interest in this case, Altman said.
“The only non-party the courts heard from … was Duke … who told the court it wanted to keep a certain agreement it has with CLP, secret,” said Altman, who declined to elaborate. “There is a significant question about the secrecy issue … it might be important to the public to determine what the court's going to do about that.”
Duke did not respond to a request for comment made through the company’s attorney and spokesperson.
"The county also supports NOPE's efforts to assure that the parameters of the agreement between Duke Energy and CLP is publicly available to allow the county and its citizens to understand the scope of CLP's obligation and capacity to assume the mammoth coal combustion residuals closure liabilities," Doran said.
Barrett also ruled that CLP must turn over documents about environmental conditions and site activity, which NOPE had requested in a motion to compel nearly three years ago.
"What could go wrong? Thousands of tons of pollutants in a pit that’s not lined, right next to the Ohio River," said Freeman, with sarcasm. "If there’s leakage — that goes out into the Ohio River, that affects the water supply for millions of people in the region, not just Pierce Township, or not just Clermont County. That’s the entire region."
