Jul 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Susan Hylton Tulsa World, Okla.



Those opposing or supporting tougher rules on fly ash, a by-product of coal-fired power plants, have until Sept. 20 to make their opinions known.

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering regulating coal combustion residuals and has published two options in the Federal Register.

The first would define coal combustion residuals as a special waste under hazardous waste standards that would be regulated when disposed of in landfills or surface impoundments.

Under the second option, coal combustion residuals would remain classified as nonhazardous solid waste, and the EPA would develop national minimum criteria governing facilities for their disposal.

 Whitney Pearson, associate field organizer for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, is pushing for the first option. She called the second option a weak approach that would continue to treat fly ash like household trash.

"It proposes some safeguards, but they are just suggested guidelines," Pearson said. "States could choose to impose them or not."

Whichever option is chosen, the EPA has said it will propose implementing safety measures on dams around surface impoundments to ensure their structural integrity.

This would be an effort to "prevent catastrophic releases," such as the fly ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant near Knoxville, Tenn., in December 2008.

An estimated 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash sludge was released, damaging more than two dozen homes.

Oklahoma power plants

Oklahoma produces a considerable amount of fly ash because coal represents the biggest source of energy in the state and because additional fly ash comes from lime and cement kilns. Coal makes up about 64 percent of the energy pool, followed by natural gas, at about 32 percent.

The state has six coal-fired power plants. Three of them -- operated by the Grand River Dam Authority, Western Farmers Electric Coop and American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma -- have on-site landfills for their coal ash.

The rest send their ash to facilities overseen by the Oklahoma Department of Mines, where it is slurried into abandoned mining pits and considered by the department to be beneficial.

The Department of Mines monitors 10 sites that encompass more than 1,300 acres. Environmental violations spiked to more than 35 in 2002, but records show that in recent years violations have ranged from around five to 15 a year.

The 2002 number was high, according to the Department of Mines, because that was the year the agency hired staff to monitor the sites.

The most controversial Department of Mines-monitored fly-ash site is the Thumbs Up Ranch in Bokoshe, operated by Making Money Having Fun, which takes fly ash from the AES Corp. Shady Point power plant in Panama.

The proposed EPA rules do not address mining sites.

"We'd like to encourage the EPA to include that because, as it is right now, that's being left out," Pearson said. "We need to close those loopholes for mine fills. I wouldn't say it's a beneficial use."

The AES plant is the only facility in the state that is allowed to burn Oklahoma coal, which has a high sulphur content. Others are required to burn lower-sulphur coal from Wyoming or Colorado.

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality said previously that Shady Point is allowed to burn Oklahoma coal because it was built after 1977 and has more modern technology to reduce emissions.

Many Bokoshe residents say the dust at the site is a health hazard because it contains concentrated amounts of arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium. Many believe it is the cause of some residents' respiratory problems and cancer.

"The mine-fill practice contaminates water supplies, as we've seen in Bokoshe and all across the country," Pearson said. "That's one reason why I feel it's not beneficial and should be regulated. The EPA should step in and do that."

Opposition to regulation

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality opposes regulating fly ash.

Scott Thompson, director of the DEQ's Land Protection Division, said in a letter to the EPA that fly ash is adequately managed under existing state law and solid-waste regulations.

The DEQ considers the treatment of coal ash in Bokoshe a beneficial use, despite having cited Making Money Having Fun in May 2009 for violating air-quality laws during its seven years of operation.

The DEQ letter also mentions beneficial uses of fly ash in making cement and road base material as opposed to landfill or mine-pit disposal. But it warns that beneficial uses of fly ash could be thwarted by the stigma of its being considered hazardous waste.

AEP-PSO Operations Superintendent Tom Morris echoed that concern.

Morris said AEP-PSO tries to sell most of the fly ash produced at the company's only coal-fired power plant in Oologah for beneficial uses.

The plant operator contracts with LaFarge, a supplier of cement, aggregates and gypsum, to purchase the ash. LaFarge considers the ash a "significant contribution to sustainable construction," according to its website.

Morris said AEP-PSO goes to tremendous efforts to make sure the fly ash it doesn't sell is watered down and doesn't blow from the site.

Meanwhile, the EPA is also considering a new rule to toughen air pollution standards at coal-fired power plants. The proposed rule would significantly reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, and opponents say it could reduce the number of coal-fired plants due to the extra expense involved.

Comments

To comment on the proposed regulations, go to tulsaworld.com/regulations or e-mail comments to rcra-docket@epa.gov. Include the docket identification number: EPAHQ- RCRA-2009-0640.

Original Print Headline: EPA considers fly ash rules

Susan Hylton 581-8381

susan.hylton@tulsaworld.com

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