Sandow Steam Electric Station has 17 groundwater monitoring wells, 17 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between October 29, 2015 and November 13, 2019. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of sulfate, cobalt, lithium, arsenic, chromium, selenium, lead, mercury and radium.
Site descriptionVistra Energy’s Sandow Steam Electric Station was a 1,535-MW plant in Rockdale, Texas in Milam County. The facility was first operational in 1953. Sandow settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 due to its violation of the Clean Air Act from updates to Units 1-3. In 2009, Units 1-3 were decommissioned, followed by Units 4-5 in January 2018. The AX landfill has been used for ash disposal since May 2015. The AX Landfill is approximately 169 acres in size, as of 2018.
You can find the industry reported data here. For more information on Plant Sandow, see EIP's reports: Groundwater Contamination from Texas Coal Ash Dumps and EIP's 2019 National Coal Ash Report Coal's Poisonous Legacy.
For more information about Texas coal ash, see Earthjustice's factsheet, Texas and Coal Ash Disposal in Ponds and Landfills.