TVA going dry for disposal of coal fly ash

The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to convert all of its fly ash ponds to dry disposal methods over the next eight years to avoid another spill like last year’s disaster at the Kingston Fossil Plant.

TVA directors next week will hear plans for new dry ash disposal methods not only at the troubled Kingston Fossil Plant but also at the five other TVA coal plants that also use wet storage for coal ash. John Kammeyer, who was appointed to head a new TVA organization formed to handle ash disposal after the Dec. 22 ash pond breach in Kingston, said the nation’s biggest government utility “is writing a new chapter and developing new budgets to fix all the issues” surrounding the way TVA disposes of ash and other residues left after coal is burned.

“We’ve overhauled our complete organization,” said Mr. Kammeyer, TVA’s vice president of coal combustion products. “We’ve committed to taking all of our fly ash ponds dry, and we’re taking a hard look at our gypsum ponds to see if we need to go dry with all of them.”

TVA still will use ponds for rainwater runoff and water from coal stacks, Mr. Kammeyer said. But the utility plans to capture fly ash from the plant stack using dry techniques to replace the type of built-up retention ponds that ruptured in Kingston last year. That spill three days before Christmas dumped 5.4 million cubic feet of coal ash over nearly 300 acres, much of it in the Emory River.

The improvements Mr. Kammeyer will recommend to the TVA board on Aug. 20 are likely to add to an expected electricity rate increase for TVA customers on Oct. 1. But the changes should help prepare TVA for expected tightened regulation of coal ash and limit chances of another costly spill, officials said.

“There is disagreement among different engineers on what exactly occurred (in Kingston),” TVA Chairman Mike Duncan said at the last TVA board meeting. “But the organization allowed it to happen, and we must fix the organization.”

Consultants hired by TVA to analyze the Kingston spill concluded that TVA ignored ash pond leaks at least four times over the past two decades prior to the Dec. 22 spill. A gypsum pond spill at TVA’s Widows Creek Fossil Plant early this year was similar to another spill in 2000 that TVA largely ignored because different engineering organizations didn’t communicate well with each other, consultants said.

Bill Ide, a former president of the American Bar Association hired to assess how TVA handled coal ash, said the ash disposal methods differed at each of TVA’s 11 coal plants and there were no clear lines of accountability for fixing potential problems.

“It created a situation where everyone was in charge, so no one is in charge,” said Mr. Ide, a national expert in independent investigations at the law firm of McKenna Long and Aldridge in Atlanta.

The TVA board wants a plan from management by the Aug. 20 board meeting to outline both technical and management fixes to improve the way TVA handles coal ash.

TVA currently recycles about 40 percent of the ash and gypsum left from the burning and scrubbing of coal, Mr. Kammeyer said. The rest primarily is stored in ash ponds or hauled to local landfills.

Mr. Kammeyer said the utility wants to boost the share of ash and gypsum that is recycled into wallboard, concrete and other products.

TVA said in a recent financial disclosure it may spend up to $1.2 billion to clean up the Kingston ash spill, excluding the costs of any legal liability for the utility. Mr. Kammeyer estimates the utility will spend an extra $25 million at other TVA coal plants during 2009 just to analyze, inspect and make needed maintenance improvements to ensure the safety of the existing coal ash ponds at those plants.

Long-term capital improvements needed to build new disposal methods and extra operating expenses to haul more coal ash offsite will require TVA to boost its budgets for coal ash removal. Mr. Kammeyer said such costs “could involve some pretty big numbers.” But he declined to detail any estimates before he presents his recommendations to TVA board members next week in Knoxville.

“When we look at all 11 sites and you look at all of the fly ash, bottom ash and gypsum, it very well may take eight years for us to get through all of (these improvements),” he said. “We’re not basing the amount of money we spend on past history of the plant like we used to do. We are going to spend the money necessary to get the ponds to the level of excellence that we need.”

But some TVA critics remain skeptical.

Sarah McCoin, a Kingston resident who works with the grass-roots group formed after the spill known as the Tennessee Coal Ash Survivors Network, said she no longer trusts TVA.

“TVA seems to be in total denial about how they wiped out entire neighborhoods,” she said. “Knowing how TVA has responded to our concerns, I question how truthful and thorough they are going to be in fixing their problems.”