Lawsuit: Toxins in White River, Martinsville Drinking Water at Risk
MARTINSVILLE, Ind.–Poisons, carcinogens, and neurotoxins are being allowed to wash into the White River from the ponds meant to catch coal ash from the nearby Eagle Valley Generating Station, owned by AES, says a lawsuit against the State of Indiana filed last week by the Hoosier Environmental Council.
The lawsuit was filed in Morgan County court and seeks the revocation of a permit allowing that discharge.
The lawsuit claims that since the area of concern is upstream of Martinsville municipal water wells, the drinking water is in jeopardy, and that the state is responsible by allowing the permit.
“We are bringing this legal action to stop AES’s contamination of the White River since it wasn’t stopped by our state agencies. We need our state agencies to step in and protect Indiana’s land, air, and water now more than ever since the ability of federal EPA to do so is being severely undermined,” said Dr. Indra Frank, Coal Ash Advisor for HEC.
The cuts to EPA’s authority include rollbacks of the federal coal ash rule and increasing reliance on the states to fix coal ash problems.”
The permit was issued by the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management and was upheld in 2023.
