Jan 15 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Spencer Hunt The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio


State dam-safety workers will step up inspections and review past inspections of 20 ponds that Ohio power plants use to store billions of gallons of toxic coal ash.

The decision, announced yesterday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, follows a Dec. 22 spill of 1 billion gallons of coal ash from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant near Harriman, Tenn. Ohio hasn't inspected dams at several ponds in the state in more than a decade, The Dispatch reported last week.

Ash ponds also might be subject to new federal regulations. Lisa Jackson, who is President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Rep. Nick Rahal, a Democrat from West Virginia, have promised tougher oversight for the hundreds of ponds that power plants nationwide use to store coal ash.

Cristie Wilt, an Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman, said the state's decision on coal-ash ponds follows concerns about poisonous compounds in the ash -- including arsenic, lead and cadmium -- that were released in the Tennessee Valley spill, which left about 300 acres covered in ash sludge.

"The Tennessee incident has brought this to light for everybody," Wilt said.

The agency now will treat every ash pond, regardless of size, as a Class 1 dam, she said. Class 1 status is given to dams that could threaten people if they failed.

The agency is supposed to inspect every dam every five years. In practice, it has visited primarily Class 1 dams within the past five years.

A review of state records found nine ponds ranging in size from 31.6 million gallons to 1.7 billion gallons that hadn't had an official inspection in at least 10 years.

Of those nine ponds, Wilt said, inspectors will visit the five largest within the next month. The agency will review the most recent reports for all 20 ash ponds, she said. "We want to make sure that there is nothing in those reports that sticks out as a major concern."

American Electric Power spokesman Pat Hemlepp said the Columbus-based company would welcome the extra scrutiny. He said the company inspects the 11 dams at five Ohio plants each year. That includes a pond at AEP's Gavin plant that can hold up to 9.1 billion gallons of ash and water.

In addition to the 20 ponds that use dams, Ohio has nine more ponds at four other power plants that don't use dams.

At Jackson's Senate confirmation hearing in Washington, she said that the U.S. EPA will assess hundreds of coal-ash disposal sites across the country and reconsider ways to regulate the ash and how it is stored.

Rahall introduced a bill that would direct the U.S. Department of the Interior to set uniform design and engineering standards for the ponds.

The Ohio EPA requires permits, annual inspections and liners for new ponds to protect groundwater, but there are no federal regulations. The U.S. EPA recommended setting standards in 2000 but did not act upon them during the Bush administration.

Linda Oros, an Ohio EPA spokeswoman, said in a statement that the Ohio EPA will work with the U.S. EPA and other states to help develop and carry out any new standards.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.

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