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'A necessary step towards closing the ash pond': Georgia Power is starting to drain water out of the Plant Scherer ash pond

After decades of clean water concerns about the ash pond at Plant Scherer, Georgia Power says they are starting the process of draining and closing the ash pond.

MONROE COUNTY, Ga. — People in Juliette have voiced their concerns about the ash pond at Georgia Power's coal plant in Monroe County. Ash is sitting at the bottom of a pond seeping into the groundwater at Plant Scherer.

John Kraft with Georgia Power said they plan to close their ash pond at Plant Scherer. The first step is to take out all the water sitting on top of the ash and put into the Ocmulgee River.

"And that's a, of course, a necessary step towards closing the ash pond eventually," Kraft said.

Georgia Power is spending more than $7 billion to close all of their ash ponds at their two remaining coal plants, Scherer and Bowen in Bartow County.

Monroe County Commissioner, Eddie Rowland, said these ponds collect the remains from the plant.

"The ash pond was a settling place to put the ash that was unburnt from the power producing process from the coal," Rowland said.

Kraft said the ash ponds were regulated for decades, but times have changed.

"About eight or nine year also regulations changed, and we had to switch over to on our remaining coal plants to dry ash handling," Kraft said.

This switch means the plant no longer needs an ash pond to produce power. Rowland said they can even recycle and sell the ash at the bottom of the pond. 

"Now that they have a use for the ash, is to take all the water out of it, have it completely dry, and sell it to using these products," Rowland said.

Georgia Power added an entire water treatment plant to help remove, clean and relocate the water from the ash pond. However, Kraft said all of it won't drain overnight.

"It'll probably take another eight to ten years before the ash pond itself is fully closed," Kraft said.

Rowland said the county has spent a lot of money getting clean water to people in Juliette after ash has been sitting in the groundwater for decades.

"We obviously understand now how important it is to our clean drinking water to make sure that ash pond basically goes away," Rowland said.

Georgia Power said the water cleaning system will go on for decades with their post-closure care. There will be weekly testing for the water that goes through the treatment plant. 

Then, there will be testing twice a month on the water in the Ocmulgee River both upstream and downstream.

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