For more than four years, local, state and federal officials have pushed NRG to remove two coal ash ponds and the grassy field at its decommissioned Waukegan power plant along Lake Michigan, yet the facilities remain in place.

Due to an understaffed Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), protracted litigation with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, and potential delays by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), no action has been taken toward their removal.

NRG proposed capping one of the ponds and removing the other in December of 2021, but as the EPA moved to push for the removal of all coal ash around the country in 2024, NRG revised its permit request to cap both ponds.

Shortly after NRG introduced its initial plan, state Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Gurnee, introduced legislation in the Illinois General Assembly to require the removal of all coal ash ponds and other deposits of the material along Lake Michigan. She remains five votes short of passage.

“It would be 10 times worse than Flint,” Mayfield said in June 2022, referring to the lead contamination of the drinking water in that Michigan city in 2014. “We’re not looking for solutions for today. We’re looking toward tomorrow.”

Waukegan Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward, conducted an update session at a meeting of the City Council’s Environmental Committee on Monday at City Hall to update the community on the situation, citing a slow legal and administrative process.

Waukegan ash ponds

“Despite efforts to get this cleaned up, the Illinois EPA is behind,” Florian said at the meeting. “They are underfunded and understaffed.”

During the committee meeting, Tom Maillard, the city’s director of government relations, said city officials — as well as Mayfield, state Sen. Adrianne Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, and community members — have pushed for a satisfactory resolution. NRG has continually resisted, he said.

Along with the east and west ponds, which NRG wants to cap rather than close, Maillard said the grassy field is essentially an “unlined pond sitting in the groundwater.”

“The city says you need to get a closure permit for this,” he said. “You need to remediate this. You need to address this.”

Doug Ower, the chair of the Sierra Club’s Woods and Wetlands Group, said he fears the coal ash in the grassy field may already be contaminating Lake Michigan and, through it, potentially the rest of the Great Lakes.

“It’s leaking into the groundwater,” Ower said. “Now it’s leaking into the groundwater and gradually leaking into Lake Michigan.”

Maillard reviewed the proceedings with the Illinois Pollution Control Board, which ruled in March that NRG had to proceed to remove the ponds and grassy field.

“After years and years and years of fighting, the state denied (NRG’s) request to adjust this standard,” he said. “They said you must clean up this pond. They asked for a stay. The (board) ruled they had failed to present a substantial case and denied that appeal for a stay.”

Mayfield continually pushed her legislation through three iterations of the state legislature. First introduced in the 102nd General Assembly in early 2022, it quickly passed the state Senate but got no vote in the state House of Representatives because she could not get the assurance of 60 members.

Reintroducing her bill in the 103rd General Assembly in 2023 and the 104th in 2025, Mayfield continues to work with her colleagues to get the required 60 Democratic commitments to bring it to the floor for a vote and passage.

Though there are 78 Democrats in the House and she needs the commitment of 60 of them to get a vote on the bill, Mayfield said she only has 55 commitments. Each time she gets close to 60, she said someone backs away.

“I keep educating legislators on the issues,” Mayfield said Tuesday. “Every time we get close, NRG has its lobbyists keep the number under 60. I’m not giving up. I’m still optimistic we can get it passed.”

While the EPA was pushing for the closure of coal-fired power plants throughout the country in 2024, it is now looking to extend the deadline until 2031, including for three plants in Illinois and one in Indiana. Waukegan is not on the list. The NRG facility is decommissioned.

Maillard said the city is not standing still. It is taking all the steps it can to bring a quick resolution to the situation and get the ponds and grassy fields removed. City officials are working with the state.

“We are bolstering our technical knowledge,” he said. “We are in the process of bringing in an environmental lawyer with a background in this sort of work. We are pushing the state to increase its budget for the IEPA.”

Christiana Freitag of the Chicago Tribune contributed to this story.