Monroe Power Plant

Monroe Power Plant has 1 groundwater monitoring wells, 1 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between June 03, 2010 and December 03, 2013. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of sulfate, arsenic and selenium.

The Monroe Power Plant is a four-unit coal-fired power plant that has been online since 1971. The plant is located on a 200-acre peninsula that juts into Lake Erie. There are two coal ash disposal-related facilities at this site. The first is a 18,500 acre-foot "Fly Ash Basin" located west of the plant. It was classified as a "significant hazard" dam by the Environmental Protection Agency, though it is regulated as a landfill under Michigan law. The second disposal facility is the "Bottom Ash Stormwater Pond," which is classified as a low-hazard dam.

During the 1970s and 1980s, soil and groundwater studies conducted by Detroit Edison and the state indicated that groundwater beneath the Fly Ash Basin was protected by over 7 feet of clay soils and any potential contamination from the ash basin would be unlikely over the next several decades. In 1999, MDEQ narrowed routine sampling requirements at the site to one groundwater well on the northern edge of the Fly Ash Basin and sampling of the Fly Ash Basin itself.

According to DTE's 1999 Ash Basin Monitoring Plan, there were five domestic water supply wells located along a road 500 feet north of the Fly Ash Basin.