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Report says the steel wall holding back coal ash fill in Michigan City could fail, NIPSCO disagrees

By Lauren Chapman

Posted June 28, 2022

NIPSCO's Michigan City coal plant

An aerial view of NIPSCO's Michigan City coal plant. A series of steel walls run along the shoreline in front of the plant to protect it. (Courtesy of NIPSCO)

A new report said steel walls near the Michigan City coal plant aren’t keeping coal ash waste from getting into Lake Michigan and Trail Creek, and the problem will likely get worse over time. But the plant's owner, northern Indiana utility NIPSCO, said info in the report has been “cherry-picked.”

Though NIPSCO plans to remove coal ash waste from its ponds at the Michigan City plant, it doesn’t plan to excavate the ash used as fill on the site.

NIPSCO also used coal ash as fill in the Town of Pines. The utility was ordered to remove contaminated soil from properties in the area and pay to connect about 270 homes on private drinking water wells to city water.

The report by Burgess Environmental commissioned for Earthjustice reviewed inspection reports and other documents on the stability and integrity of the walls holding some of that waste back.

The report said since the walls were put in place starting in the 1930s, their thickness has corroded. They’ve also moved and part of the wall is leaning outward.

“Well it's an indication that eventually you’re going to fail and then the contaminant — you know, the coal ash — will be exposed to the waves of Lake Michigan," said Gordon Johnson, a geological engineer for Burgess Environmental.

Nick Meyer is the vice president of communications for NiSource, NIPSCO’s parent company. He said the report “cherry-picked” information and the walls have received a “fair” rating, which means though there are some defects and deterioration, the structural elements are sound.

“Kind of picking bits and pieces of older reports and sort of piecing together a bit of a different conclusion based on the reports that they're reviewing," Meyer said.

The oldest report used in the Burgess Environmental review was from 2018. Johnson said his report was meant to "investigate and evaluate the areas that are most likely to fail."

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