To our representatives at -
EPA Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W., MC 5304T, Washington, D.C. 20460
US EPA Region 2, 290 Broadway, New York, New York 10007-1866
NYS DEC Region 9, 700 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209

In 2016, NRG Energy closed the century-old Huntley coal-fired power plant located at 3500 River Road in the Town of Tonawanda NY. In 2018, NRG entered 37 acres of the facility, which is within the 100 year FEMA floodplain directly adjacent to the Niagara River, into the NYS Brownfield Clean-up Program as a Participant, acknowledging their responsibility for the contamination left behind, largely by the coal pile and coal ash ponds.

Remediation action since then, with the exception of the removal of the remaining coal pile, has been slow, with much of the work to date consisting of studies and testing, not direct remediation actions. As of May 2024, an entire site investigation has still not yet been completed. What we do know is that studies have so far shown contamination of the site from Antimony, Arsenic, Boron, Lead, Lithium, Sulfate, and Thallium at levels dangerous to human health, and there is evidence that points to potential leaching of arsenic into the internationally protected Niagara River.

Due to the slow action by NRG Energy to remediate the site and reactivate it with a new use, the Town of Tonawanda has since 2018 been pursuing eminent domain of portions of the site with interested developers. NRG Energy has stated that if the Town of Tonawanda continues to pursue eminent domain for portions of the site, that they will no longer consider themselves to be the Potentially Responsible Party, and foist the cost of the clean-up onto Tonawanda taxpayers.

NRG Energy is a for-profit corporate entity that in 2022 netted $1.2 billion in profits and in 2023 returned $1.5 billion to shareholders. It has plenty of resources as well as an admitted responsibility to clean up the contamination left behind by its operations at NRG Huntley.

Further, in late April 2024 the Environmental Protection Agency finalized stricter rules for legacy coal ash contamination at sites like Huntley, which gives the EPA greater regulatory tools to force remediation action.

It has now been eight years since the NRG Huntley facility closed, and six since it was entered into the NYS Brownfield Program, and we, the undersigned residents of Western New York, are unsatisfied with the speed of the remediation of the site and the utter lack of transparency to our community, as well as disturbed by NRG Energy’s tough arm tactics that threaten to foist the cost of cleaning up their pollution onto the working class taxpayers of the Town of Tonawanda.

We ask that the EPA and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation prioritize action at the Huntley site and impel NRG Energy to take swift action to implement a Clean Closure of the site, and set a clear timeline that NRG Energy must follow for these actions to take place.

References -
https://earthjustice.org/feature/coal-ash-states/new-york
https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/2402
https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2019-10/niagara-river-corridor-recognized-40th-wetland-international-importance
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/business/top-ny-court-sides-with-tonawanda-in-dispute-over-huntley-site/article_cbb2feb2-9f4a-11ee-b5b2-ff967564ac38.html
https://investors.nrg.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nrg-energy-inc-reports-full-year-2023-financial-results
https://www.epa.gov/coalash/final-rule-legacy-coal-combustion-residuals-surface-impoundments-and-ccr-management-units