Dominion Virginia Power’s plans to bury its coal ash in unlined pits in Chesterfield County and three other localities could hinge on a federal trial that begins this morning in Richmond.
The lawsuit challenging Dominion’s “cap in place” plans, filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Sierra Club, will try to show that arsenic and other harmful metals have leached from the ash at Dominion’s Chesapeake Energy Center into groundwater and the Elizabeth River — charges that Dominion denies.
The environmental groups claim the leakage into the river is in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. They are asking a judge to require Dominion to excavate the massive quantities of ash at the abandoned coal-fired power plant site in Chesapeake and move it to a modern, lined landfill.
