OAKWOOD, Ill. — Illinois is home to only one National Scenic River: the Middle Fork of the Vermillion River. And environmental groups say it's being threatened by toxic coal ash waste that's seeping from a shuttered power plant owned by Dynegy.

Earthjustice and Prairie Rivers said they have filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue Dynegy, which closed the power plant in 2011. Andrew Rehn, water resources engineer at Prairie Rivers, said after decades of producing coal there, three pits filled with ash that contain contaminants are leaking from unlined ponds.

"The ground water is free to mix with the ash. And in this case the water in the coal-ash empondments is flowing through the berm along the banks of the river,” Rehn said. “And when you're canoeing the river and you look out at the riverbank, there's stained orange and purple and this sort of shimmering color."

David Byford with Dynegy said they are working with state and federal regulatory agencies to provide long-term protection of the storage areas, adding they finished a 485-foot riverbank stabilization in 2016. He said it has been successful in both restoring the riverbank and providing long-term protection against future erosion.

Prairie Rivers said tests they have done, as well as those done by Dynegy, have shown that seepage from the ash pits into the river contains toxic heavy metals. Rehn said that's threatening human health and wildlife. He added that stretch of river is unique in the state, and those who enjoy its beauty don't want it spoiled.

"When you're in the river, it feels like you're totally back in nature. You can't see anything from the riverbanks,” he said. “The one exception along that 17-mile corridor is the Dynegy Vermillion Power Plant that sits on the bluff above the Middle Fork."

In 1989, 17 miles of the Middle Fork were designated as a National Scenic River under the federal National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.


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By Yessenia Funes for Next City and Yale Climate Connections.
Broadcast version by Shanteya Hudson for Georgia News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

In Atlanta's Cascade neighborhood, a Black church has operated a community center next door for decades. The recently renovated space is simple inside - white walls and gray carpet - but that's where the magic happens. There, the congregation runs a weekly food pantry where they feed up to 400 predominantly Black families a week. Now, with financial help from the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate law passed by Democrats during the Biden administration, the church is offering even more services - by making the center the first community-owned resiliency hub in the city.

The Vicars Community Center, which held its ribbon-cutting ceremony in July, is outfitted with solar panels and battery storage that can provide enough energy to power the building for three days should there be a blackout and no sunlight. The center is prepared to serve as an emergency shelter for locals in the face of a power outage. In the era of fossil fuel-powered hurricanes and heat waves, frontline community members need a safe place to turn when the lights go out.

"It really fit into what we're already trying to do," says Pastor Kevin Earley of Community Church Atlanta, which worked with the clean energy nonprofit Groundswell to develop the resiliency hub in its community center. "We want to be the place that people turn to in the good times and the bad."

From 2000 to 2023, extreme weather caused 80% of power outages, according to the research and communications group Climate Central. Just last month, Hurricane Helene knocked out power for some 5.5 million people in the Southeast and Midwest. Some families were left in the dark for three weeks. Thanks to federal tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, people in this neighborhood will now have a place to charge their phones, refrigerate their medicines, and plug in life-saving medical devices if an extreme weather event cuts electricity off to their homes. What's more, the center's solar panels reduce planet-warming emissions - and save them $6,000 a year in energy costs.

Despite President-elect Donald Trump's promise to slash the law that helped make the resiliency hub possible, developers don't expect the new administration's plans to affect them. Even if Trump kills the extremely popular direct-pay tax credits program, where the federal government issues payouts to entities that have built qualified clean energy projects, the team in Atlanta will be filing for the IRA credits by May 2025 for the 2024 tax year.

It would be an unlikely logistical nightmare for the president-elect's administration to attempt a tax restructuring that would repeal credits retroactively, explains Friends of the Earth climate and energy justice deputy director Lukas Shankar-Ross. However, other communities of color hoping to tap into IRA dollars to fund similar safety nets in their hometowns may have limited time to take advantage of the law's full benefits before Trump and his allies in Congress cut them.

"It is now our responsibility to shout from the mountaintops how good and impactful these tax credits are for local community and economic development," says Matthew Wesley Williams, senior vice president of community development at Groundswell. The organization partnered with the church to raise money for the solar panels and find the capital needed to own the setup without additional debt. "Organizations that support community resilience like churches, small municipalities, and rural utilities need these resources to stand firm and sustain their local impact."

The effort to create the resiliency hub came together in 2023 when Groundswell reached out to Pastor Earley after activists identified Community Church Atlanta as a key resource during local info-gathering meetings. At the height of the pandemic, Vicars Community Center offered COVID-19 tests and vaccines. It hosts meetings for local groups, as well as blood drives and low-cost health checks.

Groundswell connected the organization to $225,000 in donated philanthropic funding to upgrade the center with solar panels and batteries. The nonprofit will also soon help church leaders tap into those IRA tax credits. The nonprofit sees Vicars as a demonstration that can build support for other community-owned, small-scale solar projects, Williams says. Groundswell has been seeding similar resilience hubs elsewhere in Atlanta and Baltimore.

A majority of the residents who live within a half-mile radius of Vicars are Black, according to data from an Environmental Protection Agency mapping tool. Over half are low-income. They also suffer higher rates of asthma, heart disease, and lower life expectancy than the national and state averages. Nearly a quarter lack access to health care or the internet.

"Folks in our neighborhood who can't drive away or get away now have a place just to even charge their cell phones or get information to be picked up or to receive help," Pastor Earley says.

Churches are a perfect way to introduce Black residents to clean energy initiatives, says Markeya Thomas, the Black engagement senior adviser at Climate Power, a communications group focused on clean energy.

"All throughout history, Black people have had to rely on the church to be able to survive the world that we are existing in," Thomas says.

Pastor Earley is planning ahead to ensure the center's fridges are stocked with food and water for the day an emergency arises. He's exploring options to protect the building during high winds to make it structurally stronger. The solar panels can provide energy, but that's only if the building itself remains out of harm's way. Questions remain over how to make the space a safe overnight facility with cots and security, but the church is starting to map that all out.

Community Church Atlanta has a mission to serve the community, including those who are not of faith. Now, their food pantry can expand to feed more families with the money saved from the reduced energy bills. They fed some 32,000 people last year. In the coming years, the plan is to feed even more.


Yessenia Funes wrote this article for Next City and Yale Climate Connections.


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Clean energy initiatives are gaining momentum across Ohio, with efforts aimed at expanding access and advancing sustainability.

Not limited to energy, the programs can reflect a broader vision for Ohioans striving for economic and environmental resilience.

Valerie Katz, deputy administrator for Cuyahoga Green Energy, said the county puts its weight behind such efforts.

"Whether it's solar or geothermal or wind, whatever's out there," Katz outlined. "Whatever renewable energy fits the bell and is the right type of technology to meet the purpose at hand, that's what we need to be doing."

Cuyahoga County's establishment of its own electric utility exemplifies the drive for efficiency. The utility manages initiatives like solar installations on schools, industrial microgrids and residential co-ops. However, the advances also face scrutiny, as critics pointed to potential costs and the challenges of transitioning to renewable infrastructure.

Meanwhile, other cities are exploring innovative strategies to expand clean energy access.

Robert McCracken, energy manager for the City of Cincinnati, highlighted a collaborative effort among Ohio cities.

"We have a project we are working on to look at building performance standards and how we could implement those in Ohio in a way that focuses more on incentives rather than on enforcement," McCracken explained.

The approach prioritizes helping commercial building owners achieve compliance through positive reinforcement. Cincinnati is also developing other programs to make clean energy adoption more accessible, especially for low-income communities. The initiatives set the stage for leveraging federal funds like the Solar for All program, to foster inclusive energy solutions.

At the state level, some leaders emphasized the importance of balancing new energy technologies with traditional workforce considerations.

John Highman, director of public service for the City of Canton, said the city is an example of what can be done in a mid-sized city when people work together and steer in the right direction.

"We're kind of like the little engine that could," Highman added. "We keep on plugging away and we're getting there."

Ohio's clean energy movement continues to gain traction, propelled by federal funding and grassroots collaborations, and communities willing to balance innovation with practicality.

An environmental group is sounding the alarm about Elon Musk's xAI Colossus facility in Memphis, which they fear will strain the city's power grid.

The facility's projected energy consumption now exceeds one-third of Memphis' current peak power demand.

Stephen A. Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the initial plans estimated a 150 megawatt power load. However, Musk recently announced the project's size has grown tenfold, pushing the projected energy demand to 1,000 megawatts, or one gigawatt.

Smith noted the massive, nonstop server farm is dedicated to artificial intelligence processing.

"Memphis could handle the 150 megawatts," Smith pointed out. "It's a fundamentally different request when you're going to require your own power plant to power one facility that really doesn't employ a lot of people."

Smith explained the new buildout will expand XAI's Memphis facility from 100,000 to 1 million GPUs, a 900% increase. He noted they are deeply concerned the company intentionally hid plans for a major expansion. He believes Musk secured waivers and infrastructure commitments from the Tennessee Valley Authority under false pretenses.

Smith emphasized there are significant environmental effects. Servers generate tremendous heat, requiring cooling with large amounts of water from Memphis' pristine aquifer. However, XAI said it plans to recycle water and manage cooling effectively, even with expansion. He added generating the power itself is a challenge because Memphis Light, Gas and Water and the TVA were not prepared to start up generation as quickly as XAI and Musk wanted.

"He brought in these portable fossil gas generating units and he sought a waiver from the Tennessee Department of Environment Conservation, so they're not being covered by an air-pollution permit right now," Smith stressed. "They've got a waiver for the first year, and so they are polluting the air in South Memphis."

Smith pointed out mobile units are less efficient, consume more fossil fuel and lack advanced pollution controls. Additionally, the noise from construction affects nearby neighborhoods. He argued XAI would need to be more transparent about how it is going to generate the power and control pollution and noise.


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