Utah’s Huntington Power Plant is surrounded by what ThinkProgress calls a “fake farm,” set up to “circumvent the Clean Water Act.”
It’s a fake farm says HEAL Utah and the state’s Sierra Club, adds TP, because it has no animals, no machinery and no crops, but it’s being irrigated with wastewater from Huntington’s coal ash landfills.
According to TP, Attorney Richard Webster with Public Justice and other environmental groups have accused Huntington, owned by PacifiCorp, of “contaminating nearby water sources with millions of tons of coal ash for years.”
Environmental groups were tipped off to the plant’s scheme to bypass discharge regulations, adds TP, when they learned it had withdrawn a wastewater permit used previously - one that had allowed only higlhy treated discharge into nearby Huntington Creek.
Diverting the contaminated water into holding ponds and then spraying it on the surrounding land isn’t making the pollution problem go away says Webster, and TP says the plant’s own testing shows boron and mercury at very elevated levels.
Public Justice is giving PacifiCorp 60 days to respond to several pollution issues, and in the meantime Sierra Club is hoping for a state investigation. Sign this petition to insist Utah investigate the impact of Huntington Plant’s contamination of the surrounding ecosystem and waterways.
To Utah’s Department of Environmental Quality:
Based on the reports of Huntington Plant’s history of polluting Huntington Creek and its more recent practice of diverting its coal ash waste and other pollution onto the surrounding grounds, we, the undersigned, agree with Sierra Club that a state investigation of the impact on the plant’s surrounding ecosystem and waterways is necessary.
We request that the DEQ initiate this investigation promptly and levy appropriate penalties if violations are discovered.
Thanks for your time.
