Editor’s note: The below is testimony given May 28 by Mr. Diamond at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Public Hearing on the 2026 Proposed Amendments to the coal combustion residuals (CCR) regulations.
I am here to share why passage of the proposed amendments will result in the release of more CCR contaminants from our Eagle Valley Power Plant site on Blue Bluff Road north of Martinsville.
Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) operated a coal-fired power plant on the Eagle Valley site next to the White River in Morgan County for 70 years. As a result, 2.9 million cubic yards of coal ash are stored on the site in five unlined impoundments, designated as Ponds A through E.
In May 2015, while developing a closure plan for all five ash ponds, IPL applied to Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and got approval to construct a gas fired power plant on the Eagle Valley site.
Included in the approvals were modifications to the plant’s discharge permit that allowed the use of on-site production wells to produce the water needed for the new plant operation, even though use of well water would result in the daily release of CCR contaminates to White River.
In October 2018, IPL started the new gas-fired power plant. Every day the plant operates, 3 million gallons of contaminated groundwater are pumped from under the ash ponds. More than 2 million gallons of that water are evaporated by the plant’s cooling operation, which increases the concentration of the contaminates in the wastewater from the cooling operation by a factor of three or more before it is discharged through the plant’s outfall to the river.
In November 2023, IPL, now AES Indiana, submitted a fourth version of their proposed closure plan, now only for Ponds A, B and C. The proposed plan did not include treatment to remove the CCR contaminates from the production well water, or the plant’s wastewater. Knowing full well the ongoing release of contaminates to the river would continue even after the ponds are closed, IDEM approved the proposed closure plan in January 2025.
Ponds A, B and C are now being closed, and the closure process should be completed in 2027.
Ponds D and E are legacy ponds that currently must be closed to comply with the 2024 Legacy Final Rule. They contain more than 1.3 million cubic yards of ash, and 82,000 cubic yards of the ash are in contact with groundwater.
In July 2025, AES Indiana submitted a proposed closure plan for Ponds D and E.
If the proposed amendments to the CCR Regulations are enacted, Ponds D and E will not be closed, treatment to remove the contaminates from the plant’s discharge will not be provided, and the daily release of the concentrated CCR contaminates to the White River will continue for many more years.
The continued releases increase the potential for adverse human health repercussions, are harmful to the river ecosystem, and limit our ability to make full and beneficial use of the river and the water therein.
We urge EPA to scrap the proposed amendments and require closure of the legacy ponds at the Eagle Valley site in accordance with the 2024 Legacy Final Rule.
Stanley Diamond is a retired civil/environmental engineer and a supervisor on the Morgan County Soil and Water Conservation District Board.
