The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to approve a controversial plan that could allow millions of tons of toxic coal ash to remain buried alongside Alabama’s rivers, despite the fact much of that coal ash is sitting in groundwater where it can leach into the surrounding environment.

The EPA last week announced a plan to approve the state’s coal ash permitting program, allowing the state to oversee the closure of coal ash ponds at its major power plants. The same plan was rejected by the EPA in 2024 under the Biden administration for failing to meet federal standards.

The plan would allow the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to decide whether power utilities in the state could leave millions of tons of coal ash — which contains toxic and carcinogenic substances like arsenic, lead, mercury and heavy metals — buried alongside the state’s rivers. This includes the rivers that make up the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, one of the most biodiverse places in North America.

If approved, the plan would reverse a 2024 Biden-era ruling that rejected the state’s coal ash permitting program, which was working to close coal ash ponds at power facilities across the state by simply covering those ponds instead of completely removing the coal ash. The EPA at the time said the program was “significantly less protective of people and waterways than federal law requires.”

In a news release about the plan, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency “trusts local communities to make common-sense decisions that grow the economy and protect human health and the environment.”

Coal ash waste created by power plants is generally disposed of in coal ash ponds — unlined lagoons located at power plants and typically along riverbanks. The ash is flushed into these ponds, where it settles to the bottom while water is discharged back into rivers. However, this leaves the coal ash in direct contact with groundwater in many locations, allowing the contaminants to leak into groundwater outside of the facility as well.

A 2008 coal ash pond dam breach at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee — which released 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the Emory and Clinch rivers — led the EPA to reevaluate coal ash pond standards. In 2015, the EPA issued new requirements requiring all coal ash ponds to close or be retrofitted with a liner. 

In response to these regulations, Alabama Power, TVA and PowerSouth announced plans to cover their coal ash ponds in place, rather than digging them out and removing their coal ash to landfills. 

More than 117 million tons of coal ash are stored in unlined ponds along the state’s rivers — six operated by Alabama Power, two operated by TVA and one operated by PowerSouth. Several of these ponds have been the center of lawsuits and accusations of groundwater contamination. Alabama Power has paid more than $1.5 million in fines for coal ash contamination. The company is also being sued by Mobile Baykeeper and Coosa Riverkeeper in two separate suits over the coal ash ponds at the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant in Bucks and Plant Gadsden, respectively.

The EPA is accepting public comments on its proposal to approve Alabama’s plan through Sept. 14. The agency will also hold a virtual public hearing on Sept. 3, where members of the public may comment on the plan. 

Alabama top stories in brief

ADPH confirms 20-plus cyclosporiasis cases

• The Alabama Department of Health has confirmed 21 cases of cyclosporiasis across the state. One person in the state was hospitalized.
• More than 1,600 people across 34 states have acquired the intestinal illness caused by the parasite Cyclospora since May, according to the CDC.
• The outbreak has been linked to iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, which was sold at grocery stores and used in restaurants, including Taco Bell.
• Symptoms of cyclosporiasis include watery diarrhea with frequent, sometimes explosive, bowel movements.
• Thoroughly washing and cooking produce is encouraged to prevent infection. 

Bessemer officials release Project Marvel NDA to avoid lawsuit

• Bessemer city officials released a nondisclosure agreement between the city and the developers of a hyperscale data center, known as Project Marvel, after environmental groups threatened to sue the city.
• The NDA shows that city officials are prohibited from publicly releasing information about the project’s developers, site plans and reports or studies, as well as any “other information that would reasonably be considered non-public.” 
• The agreement also requires city officials to destroy all copies of information the developer considers confidential when the agreement expires or at any time the developer requests.
• The NDA was signed by Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley, city attorney Aaron Killings and the city’s chief of staff, Christopher Warren.
• Tension surrounding the proposed 4.5 million-square-foot data center has been high in Bessemer since the project was announced last year. The center could consume 1,200 megawatts of electricity annually — more than 90 times the amount of energy used by Bessemer residents every year.

Counties that raised criminal fines also saw jail population increase, report finds

• A new report from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama found that Alabama counties that increased their criminal fines and fees also saw increases in their jail populations.
• The report found for every $100 added in cumulative criminal court fees, an additional 34 people were jailed per 100,000 residents.
• The report also showed counties that increased their fees by 1% saw a 1.75% increase in detention rates.
• “These findings suggest that court fee policy changes have measurable but limited impacts on overall jail detentions, and that larger fee increases produce larger effects,” the authors wrote.

 Alabama’s green card backlog reaches all-time high

• New reporting from Manifest Law shows that pending family green card applications in Alabama have climbed 75% since the state’s sole immigration office opened in Montgomery in 2017 — the office’s highest backlog of pending applications to date. 
• Alabama’s immigration office ended the 2025 fiscal year with 3,930 pending family green card applications, compared to 2,245 when the office first opened in 2017.
• Despite the higher backlog of applications, total family green card applications were down. The state received nearly 1,100 applications in 2025, compared to 2,151 in 2017.
• However, in 2025, the office did deny fewer applications than it did in 2017 — denying only 30 applications in 2025 compared to 138 in 2017.
• Family green cards allow immigrants with immediate relatives who are U.S. citizens to become permanent residents.

Tuberville residency challenge appealed to state Supreme Court

• A legal challenge to the U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s eligibility to run for governor has been appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court after a lower court dismissed the case earlier this month. 
• The plaintiffs in the challenge allege that Tuberville does not meet the state’s seven-year residency requirement to become governor. Tuberville’s campaign has been plagued with allegations that his primary residence is in Florida, despite the candidate’s claims that he resides in Auburn. 
• The lower court dismissed the case due to a lack of jurisdiction to issue a ruling in the case.
• “Doug Jones and his Democrat lawyers are doing exactly what everyone expected — dragging their failed residency hoax to the Alabama Supreme Court after a circuit judge threw it out,” Jordan Doufexis, chair of the Tuberville campaign, said of the challenge.
• Barry Ragsdale, an attorney for the two voters who brought the case, says he has been working on the case since before Jones announced his candidacy in November.

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