DNR holds public hearing on Ottumwa Generating Station permit

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ amendments to an Ottumwa coal plant’s water discharge permit have stirred controversy among environmental groups in Iowa, who allege the permit allows the station to avoid federal regulations on leachate discharges.

Despite DNR promises that the Ottumwa Generating Station does not discharge leachate, water that has interacted with the waste products associated with burning coal, the discharge of leachate occupied most of the conversation at the Wednesday public hearing for the permit.

Wendy Hieb, DNR’s coordinator for industrial wastewater permitting, said at the hearing that the amendment adjusted discharge limits at a wastewater outfall that was new when the Ottumwa Generating Station’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, NPDES, permit was last renewed.

Hieb said the amendment makes use of data collected from the new outfall over the past year as it has been in use.

“I want to be very clear what it does not do: Landfill leachate is not discharged via this NPDES permit, nor are we proposing to do so,” Hieb said.

In July, environmental groups including the Iowa Environmental Council, Sierra Club and Environmental Law & Policy Center submitted comments on DNR’s draft permit amendment, alleging the permit “unlawfully” avoided federal guidelines for leachate discharges.

DNR staff and an Alliant Energy spokesperson said at the time that the permit draft “incorrectly” included mention of leachate discharge.

Hieb reiterated that DNR made a mistake in including mention of leachate in the draft permit for the Ottumwa Generating Station, which is owned by Interstate Power and Light Company, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy.

A spokesperson for Alliant Energy said at the time that the Ottumwa Generating Station “does not produce leachate and the plant is not allowed to discharge leachate from any landfill under its permit.”

Leachate, which collects between the bottom of a coal ash landfill and the lining of the landfill, is pumped out. According to DNR, IPL, which also operates the nearby Ottumwa Midland Landfill to process the coal ash generated from the station, now transports its leachate from the landfill to either be used and evaporated at the generating station, or to be treated at the Ottumwa Water Pollution Control Facility.

Hieb said this change was made to come into compliance with the latest effluent limitation guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She said these guidelines also change with almost every administration, making it “no small effort to keep up” and ensure permits are current.

Per the same guidelines, Hieb said the landfill has to cease discharging to the municipal water treatment facility by 2027.

Raihan Rashidi with the Iowa Environmental Council said in public comments that the permit “cannot delay action.”

“Communities and surrounding ecosystems deserve protection,” Rashidi said.

Michael Schmidt, general counsel for the Iowa Environmental Council, also spoke in public comments and said the federal regulations require “action as soon as possible” to ensure coal burning facilities are compliant.

“These discharges of heavy metals should be a concern to everyone in the area, and we encourage DNR to impose compliance requirements rather than avoiding the issue,” Schmidt said.

Leachate and groundwater

The public hearing was requested by the environmental groups in their comments on the permit. Since then, more written comments have been sent to DNR about the permit.

Hieb said most of the submitted public comments on the permit have “not been germane” to the limit guidelines but have been about leachate and “underdrain” water, another type of water that can become polluted in a coal-ash landfill system.

Underdrain water, or the water that seeps past the coal-ash landfill and is pumped out of the ground, was the subject of a notice of intent to sue from environmental groups to Interstate Power and Light. The notice alleged IPL was discharging this water, without the proper permit, into a wetland that flowed into the Des Moines River.

Hieb said IPL is working to secure a different type permit system to address the underdrain, which she said cannot be covered by Iowa’s stormwater permits.

Brian Rath, an environmental engineer senior who leads the solid waste and contaminated site section for DNR, further explained that the department has a process to determine if the underdrain water has been impacted by the coal residue, by comparing it to groundwater at an upgradient, opposite to the flow of groundwater, site.

If the underdrain has higher levels of heavy metals, like arsenic and boron, than what is measured in groundwater at the upgradient site, then that water must be collected and treated the same as leachate.

But, Rath said when the groundwater underdrain at the landfill is compared to up-system groundwater levels, they have “not shown that they are impacted by the landfill.”

“Instead, they are exhibiting similar characteristics to that upgradient groundwater,” Rath said. “Therefore, there is no discharge of unmanaged leachate coming from the Ottumwa Midland landfill, through the groundwater, underdrain system, or otherwise.”

In addition to interested environmental groups, members of the public, some Ottumwa residents, attended the virtual hearing and voiced concerns about living downstream of the plant and the impacts it might have on their health.

One Ottumwa resident said, “we’re just really getting tired of corporations not being held accountable.”

Josh Mandelbaum, an attorney with the Environmental Law & Policy Center, also called for greater transparency from the plant, per the EPA’s effluent guidelines, often referred to as ELG rules.

“This permit fails to meet the transparency requirements of the ELG rule,” Mandelbaum said. “The public deserves to know what’s in our water and what is being done to address this pollution.”

Terry Langan, the co-president of the Nishnabotna Water Defenders Board, said the DNR needed to “uphold the public trust.”

“Stop allowing these industries to export their externalities to downstream,” Langan said at the hearing.

DNR’s responses to public comment and questions asked Wednesday will appear on the department’s website once filed.

This story first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.