GREENE TOWNSHIP (KDKA) — It may look like a lake, but it’s the largest coal ash impoundment in the nation holding scrubber waste from the Bruce Mansfield power plant seven miles away.

Today, environmentalists put the First Energy Corporation on notice they will be suing them, saying Little Blue Run is leaking toxic chemicals into the stream and groundwater of neighboring communities.

“They’ve made a mess,” Lisa Marcucci, an environmentalist, said. “They’ve made quite a mess in a number of communities and it’s just got to stop and the clean-up needs to begin.”

Recently, KDKA-TV showed you how First Energy is building catch basins and pump stations because water from the site has been seeping into towns like Lawrenceville, W. Va.

In its suit, the environmental groups say First Energy’s own monitoring wells reveal ground water contamination.

But First Energy says Little Blue is in compliance with all state and federal regulations and a spokesman says there is no evidence of residential water well contamination.

And although First Energy says it will comply with regulations to retire and remediate Little Blue in 2016, residents joining the suit say now’s the time to shut it down.

“I would like for them to clean it up – that’s what this lawsuit’s for,” Curt Havens said. “They need to clean up the environment that they destroyed.”

Though First Energy would have 90 days to comply with the demands in this notice, that seems a virtual impossibility. So it seems the debate over Little Blue and its environmental impacts will be headed for court.

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