Speakout for Clean Water + Coal Ash Cleanup a Huge Success!

On the evening of Tuesday, August 10th, we showed up in mass to Speakout for Clean Water + Coal Ash Cleanup at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division's (EPD) public hearing on the draft permit for Plant Hammond Ash Pond 3!

We had about 40 community members who spoke powerfully making well informed and impactful statements against Georgia Power's dangerous proposal to cap the coal ash in place allowing toxic coal ash to leach into our waterways! There was absolute unanimous opposition to this plan, with the only support coming from the Georgia Power representative who seemed to stumble through his comments a bit.

In total there were 130 attendees (10-12 likely EPD + Media) in the hearing at its max, and unfortunately many individuals didn't get the chance to provide their comments. This was due to the great number of people who'd signed up and the confusing process that EPD had set up to have folks speak. EPD was unprepared for the mass turnout and at first they tried to stop comments at 8pm, but then another staff person allowed a few more to continue after many people had already signed off.

Despite the number of people who didn't get to speak, we saw this first public hearing on a polluting coal permit to be a massive success and neither Georgia EPD nor Georgia Power saw this coming!

Thanks for everyone's support in making this happen!

Neil Sardana,

Georgia Beyond Coal Campaign