Judge advances suit over coal ash pollution in Susquehanna River

A federal judge ruled the Center for Biological Diversity can proceed with its suit against Talen Energy and Brunner Island LLC, which the center says has failed to properly dispose of decades-old coal ash near the Susquehanna River, the Chesapeake Bay's largest freshwater source. The judge rejected the companies' argument that the center lacked standing, finding the alleged injury and its link to the plant sufficiently established.

The suit centers on Basin 5, an unlined coal ash impoundment about 500 feet from the river, where Talen Energy's own 2024 report found high levels of arsenic, lithium and aluminum in downstream groundwater. A 2016 study found the basin saturated with groundwater, and the center says continued saturation since then violates EPA rules requiring monitoring of inactive coal ash sites.

The plant already disposes of new coal ash in a lined landfill and must stop burning coal entirely by 2028 under a separate 2018 settlement, but the seven older unlined basins remain unaddressed by that agreement.

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