Guest opinion: ADEM coal ash program protects health and environment

Three years ago this month, I made a promise to the people of this state that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management will do everything within its power to ensure the plans by power companies to close and secure their coal ash ponds will protect our land and water resources now and in the future. Despite recent contentions to the contrary, we have kept our promise. All the actions ADEM has taken since – and even before then – were to make sure the millions of tons of coal combustion residuals (CCR), or coal ash, that had accumulated over decades in massive impoundments at the power