Judge rules water permits for coal plant are flawed

SELC and our partners in Georgia won a key legal victory when a judge ruled that two water permits necessary for the construction of the proposed 850-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sandersville are legally flawed. 

The administrative law judge found that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) failed to follow proper procedure in evaluating the interbasin transfer of water from the Oconee River basin to the Ogeechee River basin. Power4Georgians – a consortium of electric cooperatives proposing the project – plans to take 13.5 million gallons a day from the Oconee, and return only 11 percent; the rest of the water will be consumed at the plant as steam or for other uses.

The judge also invalidated a water pollution permit, finding that EPD erred in allowing the facility to monitor and regulate pollution within the facility rather than at the point of discharge, as required by the Clean Water Act.

Read our press release here.