Big Cajun II Power Plant has 15 groundwater monitoring wells, 6 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between March 10, 2010 and June 05, 2015. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of sulfate and arsenic.
Site descriptionLouisiana Generating's Big Cajun II Power Plant is located in New Roads, Louisiana, northwest of Baton Rouge, on the Mississippi River. Louisiana Generating is a subsidiary of NRG Energy. The plant operates five solid waste surface impoundments covering 295 acres: a fly ash basin, a bottom ash basin, a single rainfall surge pond, and two wastewater treatment ponds.
In November 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice settled a lawsuit against Louisiana Generating that will result in reducing air emissions from Big Cajun II by 27,300 tons per year. The settlement also requires the plant to spend $250 million to reduce air pollution, spend $10.5 million on environmental mitigation projects, and pay a civil fine of $3.5 million.
Big Cajun II is listed among the EPA's potential damage cases, indicating that coal ash disposal at the site has potentially polluted groundwater or surface water at levels which threaten human health and the environment.