DNR finalizes discharge permit for Ottumwa Generating Station

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources finalized a discharge permit for the Ottumwa Generating Station, a coal-fired power station, after months of opposition from members of the public and environmental groups.

The final permit amends discharge limits for a wastewater outfall at the plant, but opponents alleged the permit amendments allowed the coal plant to skirt federal regulations on discharging leachate, which is wastewater that has mixed with the byproducts of burning coal.

At a public hearing Sept. 3 on the permit, DNR staff said the permit did not allow leachate to be discharged from the facility and that no leachate is discharged from the generating station.

In the department’s responsiveness summary, published Monday in response to the public hearing and other submitted comments, the department noted “there were no comments received that were germane to the proposed amendment.” Most of the comments related to leachate or underdrain, another byproduct of coal ash waste.

The nearby Ottumwa Midland Landfill, which like the generating station is owned by Alliant Energy’s Interstate Power and Light Company, does produce leachate, but trucks the majority of this leachate to the city’s wastewater treatment facility. The discharge of this treated leachate is under the city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit.

Representatives from environmental groups at the hearing said IPL’s decision to transport leachate to the city could not be a long-term solution as changes to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s effluent limitation guidelines meant coal burning facilities could not discharge leachate through municipal waste stations by 2027.

DNR staff agreed. In the department’s responsiveness summary DNR said it had since worked to revise the permit between IPL and the City of Ottumwa, to include a provision that “there shall be no discharge of coal combustion residual leachate generated on and after May 9, 2027.”

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Michael Schmidt, general counsel for the Iowa Environmental Council, said “pushing” the EPA requirements to the city “is not what the rules intend.”

“This is not a step toward protecting human and ecosystem health,” Schmidt said in a statement about DNR’s approval of the permit.

Schmidt said while federal deadlines create compliance, they don’t require a company to “develop a plan for its discharge.”

DNR holds in its responsiveness summary that since the generating station does not discharge leachate through its NPDES permit, the department has “no authority to include ELG limits applicable to leachate in the proposed amendment.”

EPA announced Monday a proposal to extend compliance deadlines for the effluent limitation guidelines as they apply to coal-fired power plants. According to EPA this decision “will allow facilities to respond to increases in demand and provide energy reliability for Americans” while the agency gathers more information on feasibility of the guidelines.

According to the Sierra Club, this delay could result in “more than two million pounds of toxic and heavy metal coal ash pollution in Iowa’s waterways every year.”

“Every day that the EPA allows coal companies to skirt the guidelines and evade these critical updates to the Effluent Limitation Guidelines, Americans will be exposed to higher levels of toxic pollution,” Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams said in a statement. “Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin are giving big polluters a pass to dump tons and tons of toxic pollution into our waterways with no care for how many Americans will suffer from drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food.”

Sierra Club also has been opposed to the amended permit for the plant in Ottumwa that regulates the plant’s discharges into the Des Moines River.

Josh Smith, senior attorney for Sierra Club, said the environmental group is “incredibly disappointed” by the DNR’s approval of the permit, which he said allows the plant to “continue polluting” the Des Moines River, which serves as a drinking water source for communities downstream.

“Ottumwa and the surrounding communities should not be burdened with protecting themselves from the coal plant’s toxic discharge and pollution, especially when the utilities could transition to safe, clean energy sources instead,” Smith said in an emailed statement. “We are exploring next steps and will continue to work in front of the DNR to fight for Iowa’s right to clean water.”

Several public comments about the permit were related to the presence of heavy metals and radionuclides and their impact on the people of Ottumwa as downstream users.

DNR said in its response that pollutant limits in the NPDES permit are set to protect drinking water, recreation and aquatic life. It said drinking water distributed by the city must also meet safe drinking water standards for the pollutants mentioned.

The finalized permit from DNR is valid for the Ottumwa Generating Station through May 31, 2029.

This article was first published by Iowa Capital Dispatch.