The source of drinking water for 145,000 Clermont County residents is at risk of being contaminated by waste from the site of a now-demolished power plant, officials said in a notice of intent to sue.
The county Board of Commissioners on June 2 served the notice on the current and former owners of the W.C. Beckjord Power Station site, which is adjacent to the Ohio River in both New Richmond and Pierce Township. It’s the first step in the required legal process before a lawsuit can be filed.
On the property are several unlined, human-made ponds where coal ash from the Beckjord plant was deposited over the 60 years it operated, the notice says. The plant generated millions of tons of waste from burning coal during its time in operation.
Coal ash can contain carcinogens and neurotoxins, including arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. In addition to the risks to humans, the contaminants can harm ecosystems, contributing to fish kills and damaging wetlands and vegetation.
The notice names St. Louis-based Commercial Liability Partners, which bought the property in 2018, its subsidiary, New Richmond Development Corp., and Duke Energy, which previously operated the plant.
The named entities have 90 days to take remedial action. If they don’t take appropriate remedial action, the county intends to file a federal lawsuit.
The drinking water, itself, is treated and safe, officials said, but additional contamination from coal ash would drive up the cost of treating the water. Upgrades to treat the contaminated water would cost about $30 million.
County Commissioner David Painter said in a statement that the responsibility for addressing the contamination and the costs of any remediation “should fall on the parties responsible for the conditions at issue, not the residents of Clermont County.”
Officials with Commercial Liability Partners did not respond to messages seeking comment.
‘Plume’ of contaminants a threat
According to the notice, the coal ash ponds have no barriers to prevent contaminants from entering groundwater that flows toward the aquifer, which supplies drinking water. And only a single “interceptor” well − completed in 2021 after pressure from the county − sits between the contaminants and the water supply, “providing no redundancy should (that) well fail,” the notice says.
The interceptor well pumps out contaminated groundwater directly into the Ohio River without any treatment, upstream from where Hamilton County pulls its water.
Commercial Liability Partners is aware that contaminants from coal ash in the ponds has leached into the underlying groundwater, creating a “plume” that has “migrated towards the public drinking water wells,” according to the notice.
It says that the company does not appear to have a plan to prevent “this imminent contamination” of the water supply.
“The polluters seek to shirk their responsibilities and enrich themselves by avoiding the higher costs associated with proper waste disposal,” the notice says. “Meanwhile, the public drinking water supply faces imminent risk of contamination, rendering it unusable without expensive treatment.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Clermont drinking water supply at ‘imminent risk of contamination’
Reporting by Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
