The coal ash complex at Widows Creek Fossil Plant, pictured above the smokestacks, contains 21 million cubic yards of coal combustion residuals. For the first time this year, inspection data is available for this site. (AL.com file photo)

New data on coal ash ponds in the U.S. has shed light on the extent of contamination at one of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power plants in north Alabama.

Widows Creek Fossil Plant, in the northeast corner of Alabama near Georgia, closed in 2015. There are four legacy coal ash ponds on the northeast side of the plant that have been closed and capped since 2018. There are two more coal ash disposal sites at the plant as well.

If all of the sites are in contact with groundwater, Widows Creek coal ash site may be “the dirtiest in the nation,” according to new findings from Earthjustice, an environmental advocacy group.

“That’s referring to potentially the amount of waste that’s in contact with groundwater, the amount of hazardous chemicals that are being released into groundwater, and the sensitivity of the receptor, the fact that it’s going into a reservoir that’s being used for fishing and swimming,” said Lisa Evans, a senior attorney with Earthjustice. “So all of those factors could give it the title of the dirtiest site in America.”

In response, TVA said it is an “industry leader in the safe and responsible management of coal ash.”

“TVA complies with federal and state regulations governing coal ash and groundwater protection despite reports to the contrary,” said Scott Fiedler, spokesman for TVA, in an email to AL.com. “TVA will continue to perform necessary and appropriate investigations and compliance actions, including actively monitoring our sites in accordance with state and federal regulations.”

The ash pond complex at Widows Creek contains 21 million cubic yards of coal combustion residuals, according to Earthjustice.

All four legacy ponds are unlined and lie along the Tennessee River, upstream of Guntersville Lake. The Tennessee River curves through north Alabama and is a major source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents from Scottsboro to Florence.

TVA has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for more time to determine if there is liquid in the two additional coal ash disposal sites at Widows Creek, a “rail loop disposal area” and a “gypsum stack complex.” TVA said it needs to determine if these two sites qualify as legacy coal ash sites.

If the two sites do not qualify as “legacy” surface coal ash impoundments, they will not be regulated under the EPA’s new legacy coal ash rules.

Coal ash, the remnants of coal after it’s been burned, contains heavy metals like mercury and arsenic. Those pollutants can leach into groundwater or spill into nearby waterways.

There is water in the four legacy ash ponds, according to the most recent inspection published by TVA in February. Data from the Environmental Integrity Project shows the ponds polluted groundwater with unsafe levels of cobalt, lead and other heavy metals from 2011-2015.

The publicly available report doesn’t address the other two sites.

“To wait until the federal government finally establishes rules to require [proper monitoring] is being an incredibly bad neighbor,” said Evans with Earthjustice. “And I think being reckless with people’s health and resources.”

Fiedler said TVA began implementing “best practices” years before the EPA began requiring the monitoring of coal ash.

TVA “continues to pioneer innovative technologies and management practices to ensure our sites are protective of both the environment and human health,” Fiedler told AL.com, “while supporting TVA’s mission of serving the people of our seven-state service area and helping our region grow and thrive with affordable, reliable and resilient electricity supply.”

Evans pointed to a long history of coal ash violations at the Widows Creek plant. In 1993, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management found the groundwater was contaminated with lead and other heavy metals. It’s unclear if ADEM took any action to address the contamination, Evans said.

“This is a huge potential source of hazardous chemicals to the Tennessee River,” Evans said. “It’s called the [Guntersville] Reservoir because it’s used both for drinking and for fishing and recreating. So this is a very important site to Alabama, and to the sustainability of those waterways next to the plant.”

Lake Guntersville State Park. al.com al.com

In 2009, a year after the massive Kingston coal ash spill in Tennessee, gypsum-containing fly ash was spilled into Widows Creek — and eventually the Tennessee River — from an on-site coal ash pond. According to EPA records at the time, the release was caused by “a partial failure of the settling pond.”

Around 56,000 tons of coal ash was spilled into Widows Creek during that event, Evans said.

Historically, coal ash was stored in unlined ponds near steam power plants. Until 2024, so-called “legacy” coal ash sites, or coal ash impoundments that were no longer in use, were exempt from federal regulations. Regulations now require monitoring, published inspections, and steps to prevent groundwater from being contaminated by the coal ash.

Around half of all coal ash in the U.S. fell into one of these “legacy” sites, according to Earthjustice. This is the first year that inspections have been published for legacy coal ash sites around the country, including Widows Creek.

Earthjustice reviewed inspections of 46 coal ash locations throughout the country. Widows Creek was the largest site the group reviewed.

TVA also has coal ash ponds at the Colbert Fossil Plant in northwest Alabama, but that plant is already regulated and monitored under EPA coal ash regulations.

Widows Creek has not faced the same controversy as the Barry Electric Generating Plant north of Mobile. There, around 22 million cubic yards of coal ash lies directly adjacent to the Mobile River and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. In 2024, the EPA settled with Alabama Power, requiring the company to upgrade its monitoring of the coal ash pond and include more provisions for severe weather in its emergency action plan.

But the biggest issue, whether Alabama Power will be allowed to leave the coal ash in an unlined pond, remains unresolved. Environmental advocacy group Mobile Baykeeper sued Alabama Power in 2022. That case remains pending on appeal.

Widows Creek could also be the home of a new hydropower project. In June, TVA held a hearing on a plan to invest between $2 and $5 billion in a “pumped storage hydropower plant” that would be used as a renewable energy source when electricity demand is at its peak.

Widows Creek is one of three potential sites for the hydropower project.