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Advisory board recommends tougher controls over coal ash storage
December 3rd, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
A Tennessee state advisory board is calling for tougher regulation of coal ash impoundment ponds and recommending that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) turn over control of its storage ponds to the Dam Safety Group, according to WRAL. The board, which formed in the wake of last year’s massive coal ash spill from the Kingston, Tenn., TVA plant, released a report this week outlining its recommendations. The board also recommended that an independent board oversee the design, construction and closure of ash retention ponds.
Barbara Martocci, TVA spokeswoman, said the Dam Safety Group will take over the inspection of all the utility’s impoundments in 2011. And the utility is also taking steps to eliminate wet ash storage facilities at all its power plant locations.
Coal ash storage ponds have come under scrutiny since December 2008, when a coal ash impoundment pond at the TVA Kingston plant breached, sending a wave of toxic material on to a neighboring rural community.
Despite containing heavy metals that have been linked to serious health problems, coal ash isn’t classified as a hazardous material. Thus, facilities that store coal ash weren’t regulated by the federal government. Critics say that if the plants had been properly regulated and inspected, perhaps the massive spill that blanked an east Tennessee community with toxic material may not have happened in the first place.
The TVA, meanwhile, is involved in a years-long, multi-million dollar cleanup of the land and is facing a mountain of lawsuits from people who were harmed or lost property in the coal ash disaster. The customers of the nation’s largest utility will soon feel the pain, too, as that hefty expense is likely to translate into higher residential utility bills.
