› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is putting smokestack scrubbers at its Kingston, Tenn., plant, which will clean a greenhouse gas that comes out of its smokestacks and into the air. But in order to do so, the nation’s largest utility will also have to create a new landfill to store the material left behind.
Problems continue to mount for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This week a federal judge upheld an order handed down in January that the TVA accelerate its billion-dollar program to clean up four of its coal plants in Tennessee and Alabama so the plants could stop polluting the air in North Carolina, according to the Associated Press/Forbes.
December’s Kingston, Tennessee, coal ash spill that dumped 1.1 billion pounds of toxic material on to 300 acres of rural east Tennessee property, destroying homes and damaging property in its wake, continues to raise concerns for those living near similar treatment plants in other states, especially Indiana, according to The Bloomington Alternative. Indiana stores more coal ash in manmade impoundments than any other state, which has locals worried what damage would be caused if one of its coal ash lagoons failed and dumped toxic material onto nearby land.
According to the Tenneseean, the TVA is investigating a leak from a gypsum pond at its Widows Creek coal-burning power plant in northeastern Alabama, a spokesman said at about 10:45 a.m. Central Time.
The leak, discovered before 6 a.m. has been stopped, according to John Moulton, with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Advertisement
“Some materials flowed into Widows Creek, although most of the leakage remained in the settling pond,” he said.
Gypsum is a byproduct of coal-burning power plants when “scrubbers” are added that use limestone spray to clean air emissions. This pulls sulfur dioxide from the emissions.
Tighter air emissions controls result in additional waste byproducts. Gypsum can be used in building materials.
Alabama environmental officials were on their way as of 10:15 a.m. Central Time to an spill at TVA’s Widows Creek coal-fired power plant in northeastern Alabama.
Scott Hughes, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management said, “The only thing we’ve got right now is that there was a release from a gypsum treatment operation.”
“We do understand that some of the material has reached Widows Creek.”
The creek from which TVA’s coal burning plant gets its name, crosses the plant property. Gypsum can be sold for use in wallboard, but markets have been slow and it like more standard ash can build up in waste ponds.
“We’re in the process of gathering more info and getting a full report.”
Kingston is the scene of a TVA ash pond that ruptured: Early on the morning of Dec. 22, more than a billion gallons of sludge flowed out of the pond, damaging a dozen homes and creating environmental havoc along the Emory River.
The Widows Creek Fossil Plant is located on Guntersville Reservoir on the Tennessee River. It has eight coal-fired units and was completed in 1965. The plant consumes about 10,000 tons of coal a day. The ash from that coal was in the pond that broke there.
