TVA has already said that the billion-dollar cleanup is being footed by customers through their utility bills. That hike is hidden by a recent drop in fuel costs that has helped keep customers’ bills somewhat steady. If and when fuel prices creep back up, customers will see the change. But if coal ash, which contains arsenic and carcinogenic heavy metals, is reclassified as hazardous, it could affect how the TVA continues the cleanup process. And that $1.1 billion price tag could leap even higher.

EPA spokeswoman Latisha Petteway says the agency is still mulling the decision on how to classify coal ash. Both Petteway and Barbara Martocci, spokeswoman for the TVA, declined to comment on how the EPA’s decision would affect the TVA’s cleanup. However, classifying the coal ash as hazardous would almost certainly affect how the waste is recycled. Byproducts from coal-firing plants are used to strengthen building products such as wallboard and cement, and are even used to break down soil and fertilize crops.

The TVA is the nation’s largest utility with nearly nine million customers in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Coal ash classification could affect TVA customers’ bills

TVA officials say the increased energy demand is a result of extreme cold weather throughout the Southeast. The increase will likely help pad the coffers of the TVA, which are stretched these days due to a billion-dollar cleanup of an east Tennessee community that was covered in toxic sludge after a coal ash impoundment pond breached at the TVA’s Kingston site.

The TVA also shelled out millions to buy up damaged property at the spill site and to help pay for city and county improvements and a public relations campaign to help improve the damaged area’s image. Another billion is being spent to upgrade its other facilities. The utility is also facing lawsuits from hundreds who lost property or suffered injury as a result of the coal ash spill.

The TVA is entering negotiations with insurance companies to cover the billion-dollar cost of the cleanup; however, for now, TVA’s customers are footing that bill.

Sources:
WBRC-TV
The Tennessean

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › TVA enjoys record-breaking energy sales

That spill, called one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history, knocked houses off their foundations, damaged property and contaminated waterways. The TVA is currently undergoing an estimated three-year, $1.2 billion cleanup effort to restore the land.

That’s just the kind of nightmare Kentucky residents don’t want to experience. A major spill from a larger coal ash pond built on the Ohio River flood plain could easily contaminate Louisville’s drinking water uptake just 30 miles downstream.

LG&E and Kentucky Division of Water officials say the pond wouldn’t affect the drinking water. But environmentalists have concerns. Coal ash is not categorized as a hazardous material and thus does not currently fall under federal regulation. But the massive Tennessee spill shed new light on coal ash.

Tests have shown that coal ash contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, which have been linked to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications. As a result of last year’s devastating spill, the Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered to review all coal ash ponds in the country. The agency is expected to issue new rules for handling coal ash sometime in December.

Source: Chicago Tribune

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Activists fight coal ash pond expansion along Ohio River

An investigation into the cause of the TVA spill has sent a ripple of new standards for coal ash impoundments throughout the country, including a survey conducted by the EPA of all electric utilities. The EPA found nearly 600 ash ponds. The most ponds were found in Indiana, with 53 ponds. Kentucky came in close second with 44 ponds. The survey also found significant deficiencies in the way some of the impoundment ponds have been inspected, though which ponds and where were not disclosed.

In 2000, the EPA deemed coal ash a nonhazardous material, and thus it did not fall under federal inspections. Inspections are left up to state regulators. Since 2000, improved pollution controls keep more and more toxins from leaving smokestack, thus increasing the amount of toxins in the coal ash. Coal ash contains arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, all of which have been shown to contribute to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

The Obama administration has promised to adopt national standards for the handling of coal combustion wastes including coal ash ponds, though no time line has yet been set. The EPA says it will analyze the findings of the survey. A report will be made public by the first of next year.

Source: Courier-Journal

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Some of nation’s coal ash ponds have significant deficiencies

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.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › TVA proposes to convert wet-ash storage to dry ash

Kentucky baker and former Republican Party chairman Mike Duncan, who has signed on to oversee the nation’s largest utility, made the comment at the board’s meeting earlier this week. He said the agency is already facing an uphill battle with lower electric sales from the downturn in the economy and mounting costs to clean up the mess left behind by the spill.

Those cleanup costs are estimated to ring in at more than $975 million. TVA is also facing numerous lawsuits from property owners and some are looking to the utility to foot a $1.9 million public relations campaign to restore the tattered image of the area since the coal ash spill.

Coal ash, which contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, has been associated with serious health problems such as cancer, liver damage and neurological damage. Some residents in the area – including a young child – have tested positive for heaving metals in their blood.

Duncan says he is confident the utility can find “new efficiencies in our costs at the same time that we find new ways to protect our environment.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › TVA’s new chairman says coal ash disaster must not happen again

President

According to Kentucky.com, “The Department of Energy will soon announce whether it will use $1 billion in stimulus funds to resurrect FutureGen, a proposal to create in Illinois the world’s first coal-fired power plant designed to capture and bury carbon emissions underground.” The Bush administration decided against building the plant because it would cost more than $1.8 billion. The Government Accountability Office says that price tag is more like $1.3 billion. Proponents of “clean coal” argue that  not building that plant put the effort back a decade.

Renewable resources are front-and-center with lawmakers these days, after a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash pond failed last December, dumping more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge on to an east Tennessee community. Previously unregulated by the federal government, coal ash ponds and storage units will soon have to follow standards outlined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for regulating coal ash.

The economic stimulus plan has $3.4 billion for the coal industry, as opposed to $16.8 billion for renewable energy and efficiency programs. The Obama administration also is says it will implement a program that would cap companies’ carbon emissions.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Obama administration focuses on clean coal practices

The massive spill is considered one of the worst environmental disasters, destroying homes and damaging property. The toll on wildlife, plant life and, ultimately, human life, is yet to be determined. Cleanup efforts are expected to cost TVA between $525 million and $825 million depending on how many times the waste will have to be moved and how fast crews can dredge the Emory River.

How the utility will pay for cleaning up the mess is yet to be determined. TVA officials say insurance should cover some of the mounting costs, but other options may also need to be considered, such as disposing of assets, using debt and raising power rates. The latter option likely will come with some criticism.

Last fall the utility’s board approved a 20 percent electric rate hike – the highest in almost 20 years – due to escalating fuel costs. As a small tradeoff, TVA lowered its fuel charge by 6 percent in January and said it will cut another 7 percent effective April 1, resulting in a savings of about $4 to $9 in TVA residential customers’ power bills.

TVA provides electricity to about 8.8 million million customers in Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, according to the report.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Will customers have to pay for TVA’s coal ash disaster?

In 2003 and 2006, two small leaks occurred at the Kingston plant, which raised the interest of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. That agency asked TVA to provide more information about the leaks but did not require a new storage system.

A TVA spokesman says the two smaller leaks were not related to December’s pond failure, and in both cases repairs were made to the ponds to stop the slow leaks. A 2008 inspection report of the Kingston ponds indicated that there were no structural problems with the ponds. However, officials say that the report indicated that TVA was irresponsible for not realizing that the previous spills pointed toward a serious stability problem.

Coal ash ponds are not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because the EPA doesn’t consider the coal ash to be hazardous material. Federal agents oversee coal mines but don’t regulate the burning power plants. Some experts say states have done a poor job of monitoring the coal ash ponds.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said he is working to provide stronger oversight of the coal ash ponds in his state. Other states where TVA has coal ash ponds or landfills include Alabama and Kentucky.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Previous leaks should have signaled warning

December 30, 2008

The online environmental community is abuzz with reports of all kinds about the coal ash sludge spill in Tennessee, ranging from first-hand accounts to health concerns to worries about coal in general. Twitter in particular has been a place where people have been posting news stories and concerns.

A local blog also posted before and after photos of the affected area.

Joe Romm blogs at ClimateProgress that the muck has a lot of people worried about how easy it would be for another such spill to happen:

Coal ash deposits in the USA are now under renewed scrutiny after a giant spill just before Christmas released 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic sludge into Tennessee waterways. Water tests near the spill from the Kingston Fossil Plant showed elevated levels of lead and thallium, which can cause birth defects and nervous and reproductive system disorders. The spill muddied the waters in the Emory river and is flowing into tributaries of the Tennessee River – the water supply for Chattanooga and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

So now a big question mark hangs over the hundreds of coal plants all across the country which store their fly ash in unlined embankments and ponds — like the one that failed last week. Most are situated near rivers that supply water needed by the coal plants to operate.

The NY Times reported that in the US, coal plants produce 129 million tons of postcombustion byproducts a year. It’s the second-largest waste stream in the country, after municipal solid waste, and it’s storage and handling is unregulated. Who knew?

Source: Huffington Post

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Tennessee Coal Ash Spill Before And After — And What’s Next