It's massive. If you’ve ever driven near Bucks, Alabama, you can't miss the stacks of Plant Barry looming over the Mobile River. But for the people living downstream, the most important thing about this site isn't the electricity it generates. It’s the water. Specifically, the water level at Barry Steam Plant and how it interacts with the massive, 600-acre coal ash pond sitting right on the edge of the river.
People worry. They have every reason to.
The plant sits in a low-lying, swampy bend of the river. When the Mobile River rises—which it does frequently during Alabama’s notorious spring rains or the occasional hurricane—the margin for error shrinks to almost nothing. We aren't just talking about a little bit of splashing. We are talking about millions of tons of coal ash, containing arsenic, mercury, and lead, sitting behind a dirt dike that is constantly fighting the pressure of the surrounding water table. It’s a literal balancing act between industrial waste and one of the most biodiverse river deltas in the world.
The Geography of a Risk Zone
The Mobile-Tensaw Delta is often called "America’s Amazon." It is a labyrinth of creeks, marshes, and bayous. Plant Barry was built right in the middle of it back in the 1950s. At the time, nobody really thought about what happens when you put a massive unlined pit of toxic byproduct in a flood zone.
Now, we think about it all the time.
The water level at Barry Steam Plant is influenced by two main factors: the flow of the Mobile River and the internal management of the ash pond itself. When the river level spikes, it exerts hydrostatic pressure on the exterior of the dikes. If the water inside the pond gets too high due to heavy rainfall, Alabama Power has to manage that volume to prevent an overtop event. It's a high-stakes game of keeping the "inside" water and the "outside" water from ever meeting.
If they meet, the delta is in trouble.
Local activists, particularly the Mobile Baykeeper organization, have been shouting from the rooftops about this for years. They've used drones to monitor the site during flood events. When the river gets high, the ash pond looks like an island in a vast sea of brown river water. It’s unsettling. You see the whitecaps hitting the side of the levee, and you realize that only a few feet of dirt separate a massive environmental disaster from the primary water source for the region's ecosystem.
Why the Groundwater is Actually the Bigger Problem
Surface water is what makes the news, but the groundwater is where the real drama happens. Because the ash pond is unlined, it basically sits in the water table. Think of it like a tea bag. The coal ash is the tea, and the groundwater is the hot water. Even if the river stays low, the water level at Barry Steam Plant's surrounding aquifer is constantly moving through that ash.
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Alabama Power's own monitoring data has shown this.
They’ve reported levels of arsenic and other pollutants in the groundwater that exceed federal safety standards. This isn't a secret. It’s in the public filings. The company argues that the pollutants are contained and aren't migrating into the river in significant amounts. But geologists like Dr. George Crozier have pointed out that the hydrology of the delta is incredibly complex. Water doesn't just stay still. It moves through the porous sandy soil of the riverbank.
- The river rises.
- The pressure pushes river water into the groundwater.
- The groundwater mixes with the ash.
- The river recedes, and the "teabag" water pulls back out toward the river.
It’s a rhythmic, tidal-influenced cycle that happens every single day, regardless of whether there is a storm or not.
The "Cap-in-Place" Controversy
The current plan for the water level at Barry Steam Plant's ash pond is "closure in place." This basically means Alabama Power wants to dewater the pond, consolidate the ash, and put a high-tech plastic lid on top of it. They say this will keep rainwater out and stabilize the mass.
Critics think that's a terrible idea.
Why? Because a lid doesn't stop the bottom of the pond from being submerged in the water table. If you put a lid on a bowl of cereal but keep the bowl sitting in a sink full of water, the milk is still going to get in through the bottom. At Plant Barry, the bottom of the ash pond is significantly lower than the surrounding river level at high tide. The ash will be "wet forever," as the local saying goes.
Other states have done it differently. In South Carolina and North Carolina, utilities have been forced to excavate their coal ash and move it to lined, upland landfills away from the water. Alabama is the outlier here. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has largely sided with the utility, allowing the cap-in-place method to move forward despite massive public outcry and several lawsuits.
High Water Events and Climate Reality
We have to talk about the weather. Alabama’s weather is getting weirder. We see more frequent "100-year" floods and hurricanes that dump 20 inches of rain in a weekend. During these events, the water level at Barry Steam Plant becomes a ticking clock.
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In 2017, during Hurricane Harvey (which hit Texas but sent massive moisture our way) and later during Sally, the water levels in the delta reached frightening heights. When the river stages at the nearby Barry gauge hit certain levels, the plant has to trigger specific emergency protocols. They monitor the levee integrity 24/7. They look for "seeps"—places where water is bubbling up through the dirt, suggesting the levee might be failing.
So far, the levees have held.
But "so far" isn't a long-term strategy. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) learned this the hard way at the Kingston Fossil Plant in 2008. Their dike failed, and a billion gallons of coal ash slurry destroyed a community. While the geography at Barry is different—it's flatter and swampier—the physics of wet ash are the same. Wet ash is heavy, unstable, and wants to move.
Technical Challenges of Dewatering
Right now, the big project is dewatering. To close the pond, they have to get the water out. This involves pumping millions of gallons of pond water through a treatment system and then discharging it into the river.
This process is highly regulated—or it's supposed to be.
The permit allows for certain levels of discharge. However, the volume of water is so high that even "treated" water can carry a significant load of dissolved solids. Monitoring the water level at Barry Steam Plant during this phase is critical because they have to ensure the pumps are keeping up with any new rainfall. If they pump too fast, they risk violating their discharge permit. If they pump too slow, the pond gets too full during a storm.
It's a logistical nightmare.
The Economic Angle
Why doesn't Alabama Power just move the ash? Money. It's always money.
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Estimates for moving the ash at Plant Barry run into the billions of dollars. The company argues that capping it in place is the most "cost-effective" solution for ratepayers. They claim that the risks are managed and that moving it would create its own set of environmental hazards, like thousands of truck trips or rail cars moving through local communities.
But then you have the risk of a spill. A major breach at Plant Barry would likely shutter the Port of Mobile. It would kill the local fishing industry for a generation. It would destroy the property values of everyone living on the Eastern Shore. When you weigh the "billions" to move it against the potential "tens of billions" in damages from a failure, the math starts to look different.
What You Can Actually Do
If you live in South Alabama or just care about the delta, you aren't powerless. The water level at Barry Steam Plant is a public concern, and there are ways to track it and influence what happens next.
First, you should follow the USGS river gauges. The Mobile River at Bucks gauge is the closest one to the plant. If you see that gauge hitting "Action Stage" or "Flood Stage," you know the pressure on those coal ash dikes is increasing.
Second, stay involved in the ADEM permitting process. Every time Alabama Power needs a new permit for water discharge or pond closure, there is a public comment period. These usually feel like a formality, but they are the legal record. When groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) sue the utility, they use those public comments and the data unearthed during those periods as evidence.
- Track the gauges: Check the National Weather Service river forecasts for the Mobile River.
- Support local monitoring: Mobile Baykeeper does independent water testing near the plant's discharge pipes.
- Demand excavation: Contact the Alabama Public Service Commission. They are the ones who ultimately decide if the costs of moving the ash can be passed on to customers.
The situation at Plant Barry isn't going away. Even once the pond is "closed," that ash will remain in the flood zone, sitting in the groundwater, for the rest of our lives. The goal now is to ensure that the water level at Barry Steam Plant is managed with the highest possible level of transparency. We can't afford to just take the utility's word for it that everything is fine. The delta is too precious for "trust me."
Keep an eye on the river. It tells the truth even when the official reports are blurry. Moving forward, the focus must remain on long-term monitoring of the groundwater. A plastic cap is a temporary fix for a permanent problem. Real safety only comes when the toxic waste is no longer sitting in a swamp. Over the next few years, the dewatering process will reach its peak, and that will be the true test of whether the current management strategy can actually protect the Mobile River.