TVA decides to store coal ash at Kingston spill site
By BILL POOVEY (AP) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority will permanently store onsite more than 2 million cubic yards of coal ash from a massive spill as part of the utility’s second phase of clean up. At $270 million, the onsite storage will consist of 25-foot-tall heap with no liner system beside the Emory River west of Knoxville. It was the cheapest of several options TVA considered, and Steve McCracken, the utility’s cleanup project manager, said it should keep overall costs within the projected $1.2 billion total. The onsite storage plan includes closing the ash pond that was contained behind an earthen dike until it failed at the coal-fired plant in December 2008. The second phase is expected to take about four years and is to be followed by a third phase that includes monitoring the river for contaminants. Environmental Protection Agency Remedial Project Manager Craig Zeller said water and air monitoring in the spill area have shown no adverse health or environmental impacts. “This has been a very carefully and comprehensively monitored cleanup project,” Zeller said. While the spilled coal ash contained arsenic and potentially carcinogenic heavy metals, it is not regulated as hazardous waste. EPA recently decided to consider using some hazardous waste standards in regulating the ash. TVA’s Dec. 22, 2008 spill sent 5.4 million cubic yards of ash into the river and onto nearby private property about 40 miles west of Knoxville in Roane County. In the first phase of cleanup that is near completion, the utility has dredged about 3 million cubic yards of ash from the river, much of it shipped by rail to a landfill in Alabama. …
