Toxic Coal Ash in Florida: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy

For decades, utilities disposed of coal ash — the hazardous substance left after burning coal for energy — by dumping it in unlined ponds and landfills. Florida has 28 coal ash dumpsites.

Coal ash contains hazardous pollutants including arsenic, boron, cobalt, chromium, lead, lithium, mercury, molybdenum, radium, selenium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to cancer, heart and thyroid disease, reproductive failure, and neurological harm. In 2023, the EPA acknowledged that coal ash is even more dangerous than previously thought, with levels of arsenic and radiation that pose cancer risks.

Industry’s own data indicate that across the country 91% of coal plants are currently polluting groundwater above federal health standards with toxic pollutants.

Coal ash remains one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams. U.S. coal plants continue to produce approximately 70 million tons every year.

Despite EPA’s 2015 Coal Ash Rule, which created the first-ever safeguards for coal ash disposal, many coal ash dumps remain unregulated due to sweeping exemptions for legacy coal ash ponds and inactive landfills.

The exempted coal ash dumps are sited disproportionately in low-income communities and communities of color. After years of litigation and grassroots activism, the EPA will extend clean up requirements to hundreds of old coal ash dumps across the country when it issues new regulations in the spring of 2024.

In 2023, the EPA acknowledged widespread noncompliance with existing coal ash regulations and ramped up enforcement after designating coal ash a national enforcement priority.

Aerial view of the Gulf Energy Center, formerly the Crist Power Plant, located near Pensacola, Florida.
The former Crist Power Plant near Pensacola, Florida, in 2022. (Art Wager / Getty Images)

Action Needed

The magnitude of harm from recklessly dumped toxic coal ash requires decisive action from federal and state regulators.

  • Utilities must be required to comply with the law and immediately clean up their pollution.
  • EPA and states must act quickly to ensure that utilities leave communities with sites that benefit rather than harm their health, environment, and economic status.
  • EPA must take action to prohibit the use of coal ash as construction fill and make polluters clean up areas where ash was used as fill.
Coal ash dump sites across the United States. Use this map to understand where coal ash might be stored near you and how a given site may be impacted by EPA's expansion of the federal Coal Ash Rule. (Caroline Weinberg / Earthjustice)

15 Regulated Coal Ash Disposal Sites in Florida

Florida utilities operate 15 federally regulated coal ash ponds and landfills containing 16.7 million cubic yards of toxic waste at nine coal plants.

At all Florida plants, industry monitoring data indicate that groundwater is contaminated above federal safe standards.

Despite the serious water contamination, no Florida plant, to date, has selected a final plan to clean up groundwater, as required by state and federal law.

Big Bend* Apollo Beach TECO Energy 2 unlined ponds Molybdenum (x2), Radium 226+228 (x7)
CD McIntosh Chesterton Lakeland Electric 1 landfill Antimony (x1), Arsenic (x10), Boron (x1), Lithium (x77), Radium 226+228 (x11), Sulfate (x3)
Crystal River Crystal River Duke Energy 2 unlined ponds, 1 landfill Arsenic (x144), Boron (x3), Lithium (x10), Molybdenum (x5), Radium 226+228 (x3), Sulfate (x2)
Deerhaven Gainesville Gainesville Reg Utilities 1 unlined pond, 1 landfill Boron (x2), Lithium (x4), Molybdenum (x3), Radium 226+228 (x1)
OUC Stanton Energy Center Orlando Orlando Utilities Commission 1 landfill Arsenic (x9), Cobalt (x3), Fluoride (x5), Lead (x1), Lithium (x4), Molybdenum (x1), Radium 226+228 (x3), Selenium (x2), Sulfate (x2)
Plant Crist Pensacola Gulf Power 1 unlined pond, 2 landfills Boron (x34), Cadmium (x1), Cobalt (x10), Mercury (x2), Molybdenum (x34), Radium 226+228 (x5), Sulfate (x1)
Plant Smith Southport Gulf Power 1 unlined pond Arsenic (x2), Boron (x9), Lithium (x5), Radium 226+228 (x9), Sulfate (x2)
Seminole Palatka Seminole Electric Coop 1 landfill Boron (x2), Molybdenum (x2), Radium 226+228 (x2), Sulfate (x2)
St. Johns River Jacksonville Jacksonville Electric Auth 1 landfill Boron (x17), Molybdenum (x2), Radium 226+228 (x2), Sulfate (x3)

* The Big Bend plant operates inactive coal ash ponds at the facility but has not reported the ponds on its CCR Rule Compliance Data and Information website nor has the owner complied with the CCR rule’s requirements that apply to these ponds, including groundwater monitoring, closure, and corrective action.

All data on groundwater contamination from coal ash derived from the utilities’ publicly accessible CCR Compliance Data and Information websites, and exceedances were calculated by Environmental Integrity Project.

For more information on regulated coal ash sites in Florida, see Mapping the Coal Ash Contamination.

13 Unregulated Coal Ash Legacy Ponds and Inactive Landfills in Florida (ash dumps exempted from the 2015 Coal Ash Rule)

March 2024 Update: The table below underestimates the legacy units that may be regulated by EPA’s upcoming CCR Legacy Pond Rule. Additional legacy units at specific plants may be found in the national map, above.

In addition, Florida hosts at least 13 unregulated inactive coal ash landfills and legacy ponds that escape federal regulation. The exact number remains unknown because utilities are not required to report these sites.

These dumps are almost certainly contaminating water and threatening health and the environment; however, monitoring data are not currently available for most unregulated sites.

As we anticipate EPA’s proposed rule on legacy ponds and unregulated landfills in May 2023, a concern remains that the agency will not address coal ash that was dumped off site or used as fill.

Big Bend Apollo Beach TECO Energy 0 1 Yes – EPA damage case
CD McIntosh Chesterton Lakeland Electric 0 1 Yes – EPA damage case
Crystal River Crystal River Duke Energy 0 1 Yes – Industry data
Plant Smith Southport Gulf Power 0 1 Yes – EPA damage case
Northside Generating Station Jacksonville Jacksonville Electric Authority 0 1 Yes – Industry data
OUC Stanton Energy Center Orlando Orlando Utilities Commission 0 1 Yes – EPA damage case
Polk Mulberry TECO Energy 0 1 Unknown
Scholz Sneads Southern Company 3 0 Unknown
Seminole Palatka Seminole Electric Coop 0 1 Yes – EPA damage case
St. Johns River Jacksonville Jacksonville Electric Authority 0 2 Yes – Industry data

Crystal River Plant's evidence of site contamination: Industry monitoring data posted on the plant’s CCR Compliance Data and Information website.

Northside Generating Station's evidence of site contamination: Industry monitoring is the basis of a finding of contamination as described on Ashtracker.

St. Johns River Plant's evidence of site contamination: Industry monitoring data posted on the plant’s CCR Compliance Data and Information website.

These data were developed by using EPA datasets relied upon in their 2007 and 2014 CCR risk assessments (Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Residuals) and comparing those datasets to the universe of regulated units.

“EPA damage case” denotes a site where US EPA has found documented groundwater contamination from coal ash.

Earthjustice fights in the courts for a long-term solution to the toxic menace of coal ash. And we act on behalf of dozens of clients and over 100 coalition partners to defeat legislative attempts to subvert federally enforceable safeguards of coal ash.

Earthjustice’s Clean Energy Program uses the power of the law and the strength of partnership to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy.