TVA proposes to convert wet-ash storage to dry ash
August 11th, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board of Directors is expected to approve a plan to convert the agency’s six wet-ash storage ponds at coal-firing plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky to dry ash storage within eight years. TVA CEO Tom Kilgore has been discussing the likelihood since just after a coal ash storage ponds at the TVA’s Kingston, Tennessee plant failed, sending 1.1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash onto a neighboring community.
The spill destroyed homes and damaged property, creating one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history. It also stirred up a flurry of concern from concerned citizens and environmentalists who argue that coal ash sites should fall under federal regulation as a hazardous material, as the material can be detrimental to human life.
Wet-ash plants store unburned coal byproducts washed out with water from the boiler and smokestacks. Those byproducts are stored in water-covered landfills. Dry ash is waste vacuumed out and collected in silos.
“We are going to go dry with all of our fly ash and we are going to de-water our gypsum and make it more marketable,” TVA vice president John Kammeyer told the Associated Press. ”If we can’t sell it, we will dry stack it.”
The conversion from wet-ash storage to dry-ash storage will likely cost a pretty penny for the utility, which is already spending close to $1 billion to clean up the mess left behind after the spill. Three consulting firms helped develop what TVA officials call a comprehensive plan for safer storage. “It is a big deal. It is a big effort,” said Kammeyer.