A Monroe County father is suing Georgia Power claiming that Plant Scherer caused his daughter to get breast cancer and die just 8 days after her 40th birthday.
Timothy F. Carter of Forsyth filed suit against Georgia Power in Monroe County Superior Court on Jan. 9, asking for more than $250,000 for causing the death of his daughter Joni Carter. Carter had lived at 110 Marvin Circle in Juliette, right next to Plant Scherer. She died after a 2-year battle with cancer on Jan. 12, 2021, about one week after her 40th birthday. Carter is represented by Atlanta attorneys Brian Adams and Stacey Evans. The latter was a Democrat gubernatorial candidate in Georgia in 2018.
In his suit, Carter said his daughter was a veteran of the U.S. Army, and when she returned home to Monroe County, she drank and used well water at her Marvin Circle home. Carter says that Plant Scherer, the most powerful coal plant in the world, is a known and extreme polluter that has dumped 15 million tons of toxic coal ash into a pond. The suit says that coal ash has leached into the ground water and poisoned his daughter’s well.
The suit says that the EPA has also identified Plant Scherer as the No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gasses in the country. Carter claims that the coal burned at the plant, from the Powder Basic of Wyoming, contained heavy metals and radionuclides. The suit says exposure to such toxins increases the probability of contracting cancer.
Carter also says that Georgia Power’s monitoring wells on the property, which purport to show the coal ash isn’t in the groundwater, are not deep enough to detect contaminants. The suit says none of the monitoring wells are deeper than 380 feet of mean sea level, meaning they cannot detect plumber of toxins from the ash.
Carter claims that Georgia Power operated the plant in a negligent, reckless and unlawful manner, allowing the toxins to seep into Joni Carter’s well.
Carter said Monroe County has a high incidence of cancer as a result. He said Monroe County had 269 cancer diagnoses between 2011-15, more than double the state average per 100,000 people.
Carter said his daughter’s cancer spread to her brain and abdomen and forced her to take treatments and medications until her death. And Carter blamed it on her exposure to contamination from radium, radon, gross alpha, gross beta, lead and strontium. Carter added that he is not alleging that his daughter’s wrongful death was from exposure to uranium or thorium.
Carter enlisted in the Army after graduating from Mary Persons in 1999. She was stationed at Fort Drum, NY and Seoul, South Korea. She served from 1999 to 2003 and was honorably discharged as a proud veteran. She returned to Georgia and met her soulmate, Frank Hester. Joni attended Gordon State College and worked as a florist at Flowers by Helen.
Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft gave the following statement to the Reporter:
“Our sympathies are with Mr. Carter and his family on the loss of his daughter. While we can’t speak to ongoing litigation, we are longtime members of this community; we live and raise our families here and take these allegations very seriously. Georgia Power stands firm behind its employees and the safe operations at Plant Scherer.”
One of Plant Scherer’s four units has been closed and Georgia Power has announced plans to close a second unit by 2028. This is already costing Monroe County government and schools millions of dollars in tax revenue. However, the majority owners of the other two units say they plan to continue operating.
Meanwhile, Georgia Power is spending millions to move from a wet ash disposal system to dry ash at Plant Scherer.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Bill Fears. Other Juliette residents have filed similar lawsuits against Georgia Piower in Fulton County Superior Court, where the company’s headquarters are. A flurry of lawsuits filed several years ago wound up being dismissed.
