The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week released action plans developed by 16 utilities describing measures the facilities are taking to make their coal ash impoundments safer.
The action plans are a response to the EPA’s final assessment reports on the structural integrity of these impoundments that the agency made public this February.
The agency had found that most impoundments had a “high” or “significant” hazard potential rating. The hazard potential rating is not related to the stability of those impoundments but to the potential for harm should the impoundment fail. For example, a “significant” hazard potential rating means impoundment failure can cause economic loss, environmental damage, or damage to infrastructure.
Some companies that have issued actions plans claim that investors have overwhelmingly proposed coal ash resolution. Southern Co., a company that operates at least 18 coal ash ponds, said in a recent statement that nearly a quarter of its investors had requested the company address environmental issues—with climate change and coal ash impoundment management in the leading the charge.
But, at a shareholder meeting this week, a resolution asking the Atlanta-based company’s board of directors to prepare reports on how to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its coal-burning power plants got only 8% of the vote. A resolution on coal ash got 17% of the vote.
The EPA’s actions on coal ash stem in large part from the December 2008 spill in eastern Tennessee, when a 40-acre pond holding coal combustion waste for a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) steam power plant ruptured, sending a wave of wet ash across 300 acres of rural land in Harriman County, Tenn. It was the largest coal slurry spill in U.S. history.
Since May 2009, the EPA has been conducting on-site assessments of coal ash impoundments and ponds at electric utilities. The EPA provides copies of the structural integrity assessment reports to each facility, and requests the facilities implement the reports’ recommendations and provide their plans for taking action. The action plans released last week address recommendations from assessments of 40 impoundments at 16 facilities.
Earlier this month, the agency proposed the first-ever national rules to ensure the safe disposal and management of coal ash from coal-fired power plants. According to the EPA, the proposed regulations are expected to ensure stronger oversight of the structural integrity of impoundments and protection of human health and the environment.
Source: EPA, Southern Co. POWERnews
