ATLANTA (AP) — A company spokesman says Georgia Power has stopped pumping wastewater from a lagoon filled with coal ash into a Middle Georgia lake.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (http://on-ajc.com/1PxM1I8) that the emergency pumping went on for weeks at Lake Sinclair near Milledgeville, raising concerns from environmentalists that workers at shuttered electricity Plant Harllee Branch were fouling the popular recreation area with toxins.
Advocates also said they were concerned the dams may not have been built to withstand unusually heavy rains.
Georgia Power spokesman Jacob Hawkins said the company was able to safely lower the water level in its ash pond in compliance with its permit.
The newspaper reports that the plant's wastewater permit does not require Georgia Power to test for arsenic and other heavy metals found in coal ash that cause cancer.
