Key Takeaways
- Adams County, Ohio faces an environmental crisis due to unlined coal ash ponds leaching toxins into groundwater.
- Coal ash contains heavy metals causing severe health issues, affecting families relying on contaminated water.
- Plant closures led to economic despair, but true remediation could create more jobs than demolition.
- Corporations are abandoning coal plants without cleanup, leaving communities with toxic waste and broken promises.
- The people of Adams County must demand accountability and full remediation to prevent a larger crisis.
When the smokestacks of Killen Station and J.M. Stuart Station stopped puffing in Adams County, Ohio, local leaders told residents to brace for job loss and tax revenue collapse.
What they didn’t say was this: the real threat wasn’t unemployment; it was the poison they were intentionally leaving behind.
According to a report by the Applied Economics Clinic, toxic coal ash ponds at Killen and Stuart are still sitting unlined, leaching contaminants straight into groundwater. Federal law requires their closure. Federal law requires cleanup. But instead of real remediation, the big energy companies sold off the liabilities and left the county with a slow-motion environmental crisis.
What They Don’t Want You to Know
- Coal ash is deadly. It contains arsenic, mercury, lead, and other heavy metals linked to neurological damage, blood vessel damage, kidney disease, lung disease, reproductive problems, and multiple forms of cancer.
- Communities are at risk. Many Adams County families rely on groundwater, which is being contaminated by these coal ash ponds. For low-income families, already bearing the burden of economic collapse after the plants closed—their health is now collateral damage. Last week I spoke to a woman who did her nursing clinicals in Adams County; she wasn’t surprised when I mentioned the cancer cluster.
- Jobs were the excuse. When AES announced plant retirements, union leaders scrambled for alternatives. Companies like Kingfisher, owned by Ron Froh, took over cleanup liability, then stalled. Meanwhile, displaced workers were told to swallow the losses and move on. But “clean closure” of these sites could actually create more jobs than demolition ever did; jobs that protect communities instead of poisoning them.
According to sources on the ground, even the government has been locked out of the site; they can’t get in to inspect or test it.
The Human Cost
One former Killen Station worker told researchers he was advised by state officials to “relocate” rather than resist the closures. But relocation doesn’t solve what’s in the soil and water.
Coal ash isn’t bound by county lines. It seeps, spreads, and sickens. It has and it continues to head up the Ohio River.
Why are they allowed to get away with it? Well, the data is incredibly damning:
- Adams County’s poverty rate is 20%; higher than the state average and its unemployment rate is among the worst in Ohio.
- That makes residents especially vulnerable to the medical and financial toll of contaminated water.
- As the Applied Economics Clinic report notes, “plant closures could have created clean energy jobs and public health protections. Instead, they created cancer clusters and economic despair.”
- Ohio Senator Terry Johnson is allegedly “in bed” with big energy.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just Adams County.
Across the Midwest and beyond, corporations are walking away from coal plants without cleaning up the mess. Communities are left with toxic ponds, broken promises, and officials who look the other way.
In Michigan City, Indiana, a similar fight rages on. In Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, families are already living with coal ash poisoning. This is a nationwide scandal hiding in plain sight, tucked behind engineering jargon like “cap-in-place” instead of “clean closure.”
Translation? They’d rather slap on a Band-Aid than do the surgery required.
So, What Now?
The people of Adams County have a choice: let corporations bury coal ash—and the truth—or demand full remediation. That means:
- Holding Kingfisher, AES, and Duke Energy accountable for unfinished cleanup.
- Demanding federal enforcement of closure laws.
- Building coalitions with other impacted communities to stop the cycle of abandonment.
- Demanding that Governor Mike DeWine get off his rump and do something.
Because groundwater doesn’t forget. And neither should we.
Adams County isn’t just a case study. It’s a warning. If we don’t force real cleanup now, coal ash will hands down create conditions for the next Flint.
Sources: Applied Economics Clinic Report (Dec. 2024)
