TVA to Phase out Use of Wet Storage at Coal-Fired Power Plants

Date: August 10, 2009

Source: News Room

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has decided to phase out the remainder of its "wet" coal ash disposal sites, particularly in lieu of the catastrophic spill last year and because there have been technological improvements in "dry" disposal. CEO Tom Kilgore said before a congressional subcommittee hearing that the utility has developed a five-year plan to shift waste from its five remaining wet storage facilities to dry landfill disposal. The "wet" storage facilities are landfills that act essentially as ponds into which coal ash from power plants are dumped and stored. One such facility, the Kingston Fossil Plant in Kingston, TN, gave way last December, covering more than 300 acres in more than a billion gallons of ash, which can contain heavy metals like selenium, lead, arsenic and radium. By contrast, dry storage is very similar to traditional landfilling. During the July 28 hearing EPA waste chief Mathy Stanislaus said the agency is reviewing its regulations for surface impoundments.

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