Coal

No Detectable Toxins in Water Near Memphis Plant, Says TVA

A Tennessee utility company on July 20 said tests on drinking water in the vicinity of a coal-fired power plant in Memphis showed no detectable evidence of arsenic, lead, and other toxins. The Sierra Club asked state officials to perform the tests after high levels of arsenic were found in monitoring wells at the Allen Fossil Plant.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) said in a statement that the tests were conducted by an independent lab on 10 wells at the Allen site. The wells, which monitor pollution from coal ash ponds at the plant, supply water to a pumping station near the plant, which is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

The Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) asked MLGW to test the wells after recent water samples showed one well had high levels of arsenic, reported as more than 300 times the federal drinking-water standard, and traces of lead were found in two wells. The monitoring wells at the plant are about 50 feet deep and are located about a half-mile from much-deeper wells the TVA has drilled into the Memphis Sand aquifer, which supplies drinking water to Memphis.

The Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis, Tenn., is set to be retired in the next year, and will be replaced by a natural gas-fired plant at the site. Courtesy: TVA

TVA drilled the wells as it prepares for a natural gas-fired plant to replace the coal-fired plant in 2018. The TVA said it plans to pump about 3.5 million gallons of water daily from the aquifer to help cool the gas-fired plant. TDEC spokesman Eric Ward said in a statement last week that despite the discovery of the toxins, the agency was “confident the contaminants found in TVA wells at the Allen Fossil Plant are not impacting drinking water.”

State regulators have asked the TVA to determine the source of the contaminants. A TVA spokesman said the utility is cooperating with the state’s investigation, but said finding the source of the toxins could take months.

Scott Banbury, the Sierra Club’s conservation program coordinator in Tennessee, said there are concerns about the possibility of cracks in the layer of clay between the aquifer and groundwater in the area. The Sierra Club has said the TVA should not take water from the aquifer for the gas-fired plant, but rather from the city.

-Darrell Proctor is a POWER associate editor. (@DarrellProctor1, @POWERmagazine)