Gorgas Steam Plant

The William Crawford Gorgas Electric Generating Plant, also known as the Gorgas Steam Plant or Plant Gorgas, was a 3-unit, 1 million kilowatt, coal-fueled electrical generation facility located on a 1,250 acre site at the confluence of Baker Creek and the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River in Walker County, near the town of Parrish.

The plant was constructed in 1917 by the Alabama Power Company as the Warrior Reserve Steam Plant. The United States government financed the construction of a second unit at the site in 1918. Alabama Power purchased that unit in 1923 and began construction of a third unit. Upon completion in 1924 the plant was renamed in honor of former Surgeon General of the Army William C. Gorgas, who had testified on behalf of the utility in a series of lawsuits claiming that the construction of Lay Dam was responsible for an outbreak of mosquito-borne illnesses.

Over the years Alabama Power added seven more generating units and opened its own Gorgas Mine to help supply coal to the plant. In order to attract reliable workers, the company paid high salaries and provided free housing, utilities, medical care, schools and recreational facilities in the town of Gorgas.

Waste products from the plant's operation, including fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, flue gas emission control residuals, and wastewater were piped under the river and discharged into Rattlesnake Lake, a pond created by damming Rattlesnake Creek on the opposite bank of Mulberry Fork in 1953. The stacked-stone Rattlesnake Dam originally reached about 80 feet above river level. It was raised another 55 feet in the 1970s. In 2006 the plant ranked as the seventh most-polluting coal plant in the United States as measured by impounded coal combustion waste. The utility explained that the ranking was best explained as a function of the large capacity of the plant rather than as an issue with its management. In 2018 ADEM cited Plant Gorgas along with five other coal-burning electrical plants for, "violating the state's clean water laws by contaminating groundwater," primarily with arsenic. The company was fined $450,000 at each site.

An ash pond improvement project in 2007 raised the dam 15 more feet and added a new relief spillway and additional protection to the upstream slope, bringing the total capacity of the pond to 17.3 million cubic yards. Runoff from the dam is discharged into the Mulberry Fork and is regulated by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Gypsum waste was redirected to a series of treatment ponds northwest of the plant which were added in 2007. In 2015, shortly after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published new rules requiring the monitoring of groundwater and management of effluent from coal-burning plants, the power company announced plans to close and cover its ash ponds and convert all of its coal-fired plants to dry-storage. Costs associated with those projects were cited in a January 2019 rate increase.

In 2002 Alabama Power added selective catalytic reduction (SCR) scrubbers to the plant's stacks, reducing output of a nitorigen oxide, a key contributor to ground-level ozone. New sulfur dioxide and particle scrubbers were installed in 2008. Additional work to bring the plant into compliance with environmental laws and regulations was completed in 2014 at a cost of $380 million. Installation of a large "baghouse" intended to capture mercury. Units 6 and 7 were retired in 2015 and disassembled over the next two years.

Plant Gorgas was shut down on April 15, 2019, prior to the deadlines set by ADEM for submitting reports on the extent and source of groundwater contamination and the proposed measures to remediate the pollution and close the ash ponds. Company officials and members of the Alabama Public Service Commission blamed unnecessary federal regulations for causing the shutdown. Some workers remained on site to close the coal ash pond and secure the site. Alabama Power has announced that it plans to recover approximately $740 million in "net investment costs" related to the plant, plus a profit margin, by increasing rates for electrical power consumers.

References

• Atkins, Leah Rawls (2006) Developed for the Service of Alabama: The Centennial History of the Alabama Power Company, 1906-2006 Birmingham: Alabama Power Company. ISBN 0978675304

• Sturgis, Sue (January 5, 2009) "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?" Facing South. Institute for Southern Studies
• Snazderman, Michael (July 10, 2015) "Gorgas baghouse nearing completion." Alabama NewsCenter (owned by Alabama Power)
• Pillion, Dennis (September 30, 2015) "Alabama Power expects to close coal ash ponds 'eventually' due to new EPA rules." The Birmingham News
• Pillion, Dennis (March 2, 2018) "Alabama Power fined $1.25 million over coal ash ponds." The Birmingham News
• Pillion, Dennis (December 6, 2018) "Alabama coal ash ponds do not meet EPA groundwater rules, must permanently close." The Birmingham News
• Pillion, Dennis (January 4, 2019) "Alabama Power blames rate increase on coal ash costs." The Birmingham News
• Pillion, Dennis (February 20, 2019) "Alabama Power to shutter coal plant, cites environmental laws." The Birmingham News
• Howell, Ed (February 21, 2019) "Gorgas plant closing April 15 after 102 years." Daily Mountain Eagle
• Pillion, Dennis (March 3, 2019) "Alabama Power customers to pay $740 million after coal plant closes." The Birmingham News

External links

• Aerial photographs of Plant Gorgas for the Historic American Engineering Record (Jet Lowe, 1994)