Officials continue push to remove Waukegan coal ash ponds

For more than four years, local, state and federal officials have pushed NRG to remove two coal ash ponds and the grassy field at its decommissioned Waukegan power plant on Lake Michigan, but the facilities remain in place.

Due to understaffing at the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), protracted litigation with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, and potential delays by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), no action has been taken toward their removal.

NRG proposed plugging one of the ponds and removing the other in December 2021, but as the EPA decided to push for the removal of all coal ash in the country in 2024, NRG revised its permit application to plug both ponds.

Shortly after NRG presented its initial plan, state Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Gurnee, introduced legislation in the Illinois General Assembly requiring the removal of all coal ash ponds and other material deposits along Lake Michigan. It still needs five votes to be adopted.

“It would be 10 times worse than Flint,” Mayfield said in June 2022, referring to lead contamination of that Michigan city’s drinking water in 2014. “We’re not looking for solutions for today. We’re looking for tomorrow.”

Waukegan Ald. Lynn Florian, of the 8th Ward, led an update session during a City Council Environmental Committee meeting Monday at City Hall to inform the community of the situation, citing the slow legal and administrative process.

“Despite efforts to set the record straight, the Illinois EPA is behind schedule,” Florian said at the meeting. “They are underfunded and understaffed.”

During the committee meeting, Tom Maillard, the city’s director of government relations, said city officials — along with Mayfield, state Sen. Adrianne Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, and community members — pushed for a satisfactory resolution. NRG continually resisted, he said.

Besides the east and west ponds, which NRG wants to plug rather than close, Maillard said the grassy field is essentially an “unlined pond sitting in groundwater.”

“The city says you have to get a closure permit for that,” he said. “You need to fix this. You need to fix this.”

Doug Ower, president of the Sierra Club’s woodlands and wetlands group, said he worries that coal ash in grassy fields is already contaminating Lake Michigan and, through it, potentially the rest of the Great Lakes.

“It flows into groundwater,” Ower said. “Now the water is seeping into the groundwater and gradually flowing into Lake Michigan.”

Maillard reviewed procedures with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, which ruled in March that NRG must proceed with the removal of the ponds and grass field.

“After years and years of fighting, the state denied (NRG’s) request to adjust that standard,” he said. “They said you have to clean up this pond. They asked for a stay. The (board) found that they didn’t make a substantive argument and denied that stay appeal.”

Mayfield continually pushed his legislation through three iterations of the state legislature. First introduced during the 102nd General Assembly in early 2022, the bill quickly passed the state Senate but received no votes in the state House of Representatives because it was unable to gain assurance from 60 members.

By reintroducing his bill in the 103rd General Assembly in 2023 and the 104th in 2025, Mayfield continues to work with his colleagues to secure the 60 Democratic commitments required to bring it up for a vote and adoption.

Although there are 78 Democrats in the House and she needs commitments from 60 of them to get a vote on the bill, Mayfield said she only has 55 commitments. Every time she approaches 60, she says someone takes a step back.

“I continue to educate legislators on these issues,” Mayfield said Tuesday. “Every time we get close to it, NRG tells its lobbyists to keep the number below 60. I’m not giving up. I’m still optimistic that we’ll be able to get it passed.”

While the EPA pushed to close coal plants nationwide in 2024, it is now considering extending the deadline to 2031, including for three plants in Illinois and one in Indiana. Waukegan is not on the list. The NRG installation is decommissioned.

Maillard said the city is not standing still. He is taking all possible measures to find a quick solution to the situation and make the ponds and grassy fields disappear. Municipal authorities work with the state.

“We are strengthening our technical knowledge,” he said. “We are in the process of bringing in an environmental lawyer with experience in this type of work. We are pushing the state to increase its budget for IEPA.”

Christiana Freitag of the Chicago Tribune contributed to this story.