Company: SOJE
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000092122-25-000018
Chunk: 821

Company: SOUTHERN CO
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7A
Chunk 821
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. In the absence of an EPA-approved state permit program, CCR facilities in Alabama will remain subject to both the federal and state CCR rules. The ultimate impact of this action cannot be determined at this time; however, it may result in significant compliance costs.

The Holistic Approach to Closure: Part A rule, finalized in 2020, revised the deadline to stop sending CCR and non-CCR wastes to unlined surface impoundments to April 11, 2021 and established a process for the EPA to approve extensions to the deadline. The traditional electric operating companies stopped sending CCR and non-CCR wastes to their unlined surface impoundments prior to April 11, 2021 and, therefore, did not submit requests for extensions. Beginning in January 2022, the EPA issued numerous Part A determinations that state its current positions on a variety of CCR Rule compliance requirements, such as criteria for groundwater corrective action and CCR unit closure. The traditional electric operating companies are working with state regulatory agencies to determine whether the EPA's current positions may impact closure and groundwater monitoring plans.

In April 2022, the Utilities Solid Waste Activities Group and a group of generating facility operators filed petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging whether the EPA's January 2022 actions establish new legislative rules that should have gone through notice-and-comment rulemaking. On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision dismissing the challenges to the EPA's January 2022 actions and interpretations related to the closure performance standards in the 2015 CCR rule. The ultimate impact of this decision and the EPA's current positions cannot be determined at this time; however, it may result in significant compliance costs.

On May 8, 2024, the EPA published the final legacy CCR surface impoundments rule which regulates two new categories of federally regulated CCR, legacy surface impoundments and CCR management units (CCRMUs). The rule requires legacy surface impoundments and CCRMUs to meet certain existing regulatory requirements, including a requirement to initiate closure within 42 months after the effective date of the final rule for legacy surface impoundments and within 54 months after the effective date of the final rule for CCRMUs. The final rule also includes an option to defer closure of previously closed units where certain criteria have been met. The final rule also includes enhanced reporting requirements. The EPA is also