POWERGRAMS

51 Set for the scrap heap, Barry Danny Bolerjack watched with pride as an 11-foot-tall, 9-foot-long, 6,000-pound tank disappeared beneath the waves, headed 60 feet down to the bottom sands of the Gulf of Mexico. "Instead of just taking it to salvage, it's put to use again, starting a new life," said the Operations and Maintenance manager at Washington County Cogeneration Facility. He stood with Chemical Technician Whitney Doherty, Environmental Affairs Team Leader Wes Anderson and other Alabama Power employees as a ship nearby raised from its deck and then dropped over the side two massive Barry Steam Plant storage tanks – 10-by-19-feet and 10-by-26-feet – totaling 44,000 pounds of steel that together would form a new reef. Fish and other aquatic animals started moving into, through and around their new homes in August, making possible more big catches for saltwater anglers along Alabama's Gulf Coast. Alabama Power, the Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF) and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) joined hands to deploy the artificial reef about 8 miles south of Dauphin Island. "Alabama Wildlife Federation has worked collaboratively with a variety of partners for two decades to support Alabama's world-class artificial reef system, which provides both ecological benefits for marine life as well as enhanced opportunities for anglers," said AWF Executive Director Tim Gothard. "We are excited about the new Build-Out Plan developed in conjunction with Alabama Marine Resources, and we appreciate Alabama Power working in partnership with us to establish the first of the 26 new reefs in the plan." The steel tanks, which had been used to help produce electricity, reached the end of their usefulness at the plants and were replaced with upgraded equipment as a part of regular maintenance. At Washington County Cogen, journeymen prepared their old storage tank for transport from the plant. "The tanks were emptied of the contents, rinsed and then dry-ice blasted to ensure no material would passivate from the interior walls of the tank," Doherty said. "Washington County Cogen journeymen made the modifications recommended by Craig Newton from Marine Resources." Bolerjack said the tanks would have been dismantled, cut up and shipped as scrap steel without the introduction of the artificial reef project. The cost to prepare the tanks for the reefs "was a small price to pay for an enormous ecological impact." Transportation Manager Doug Bischoff's heavy haul team used three 18-wheel tractor- trailers to move the tanks from Barry and Washington Cogen to Orange Beach, where final preparations of the equipment were made and the tanks loaded on the ship for their final journey. "We've sunk tanks, barges and concrete pyramids, but when we can get companies like this that will work together to take that which might otherwise have been sent to a landfill or that was scrapped a different way, that will go out here and perpetually produce fish, we think that is a much more environmentally friendly way to dispose of things," said ADCNR Commissioner Chris Blankenship. "We're very thankful for those partnerships." The new reef is the second state aquatic project aided by Alabama Power in the past five years. The first involved two old boilers from Theodore Cogeneration Plant and Washington County Cogen that were deployed in the Gulf in 2016. "I was not directly involved with the project," Doherty said. "I saw the process that co-workers underwent to create an artificial reef from retired structures and was inspired to create one, too." Earlier this year, divers found the older reef teeming with aquatic life. Bolerjack took part in the salvage efforts for the original reef project, too, and has since taken a boat out to the 120-foot-deep waters. "I'm not an expert fisherman but there were fish everywhere," he said. "There were lots of fish, good-sized fish." The latest Alabama Power project is the first of 26 artificial reefs to be deployed in AWF's new reef zone plan. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and the ENVIRONMENT

• Cover