May 17 - The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio



Power companies face shutting down coal-ash ponds at their plants amid rising concerns about toxic threats to groundwater.

The federal government is proposing changes, brought on by the December 2008 coal-ash flood at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant, that would be enforced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Ohio has 28 ponds at 13 power plants; the largest can hold 9.1 billion gallons of ash and water.

Environmental advocates say the proposed regulations are long overdue for the coal wastes and toxic metals -- including arsenic, barium, lead and selenium -- that the ponds contain.

 "Ohio is pockmarked with these old waste ponds that are like sieves ready to leak," said Jack Shaner, lobbyist with the Ohio Environmental Council.

However, power-company officials say the ponds are not a threat and question why the federal agency would treat coal ash like a hazardous waste.

"Coal ash can be safely disposed of under regulations that classify it as nonhazardous," said Mark Durbin, spokesman for Akron-based First Energy. "We've been doing it for a long time. There are no issues here."

According to the American Coal Ash Association, power plants produced 90.9 million tons of ash nationwide in 2008, about 40 percent of which is reused as ingredients in cement, asphalt and in the foundations of new roads.

Ohio's plants produce about 7 million tons of ash a year, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. EPA and the Department of Energy.

Power-plant ash was largely ignored by government officials and environmentalists more concerned about air pollution and climate change.Then a dike failed at an ash dump used by the Kingston power plant, spewing a flood of ash that covered 300 acres in a toxic, gray sludge.

The incident prompted a national review of safety measures at more than 300 coal-ash ponds and dumps.

The U.S. EPA unveiled two sets of proposed regulations last week. One would treat ash as a special waste handled under hazardous-waste laws. The other would treat ash under rules governing the disposal of household garbage. Both sets of rules would force power companies to empty their ponds so that plastic liners could be installed.

State regulations enforced by the Ohio EPA require liners for new ponds. But power company officials, including those at Columbus-based American Electric Power, said none of the 28 Ohio ponds have them because the ponds were built before the regulations were enacted in the late 1970s.

Ohio EPA officials said power companies might decide it's cheaper to close the ponds and cover the ash in layers of clay and dirt.

"A lot of power plants, for various reasons, are going to dry-ash-handling facilities," said Paul Novak, the agency's surface-water permit and compliance manager, who oversees the lagoons.

As many as six Ohio power plants have built or plan to build landfills to take waste sludge from scrubbers. Novak said ash could be sent to those sites, too, where liners are required.

AEP sends ash and scrubber sludge from its Gavin plant along the Ohio River near Cheshire to a landfill, but it still maintains a 9.1-billion-gallon pond as a storage site for old ash.

Spokesman Pat Hemlepp said the company doesn't know what it would do with the Gavin pond or 32 others it maintains in Ohio and other states. He also doesn't know how AEP will respond to the U.S. EPA's proposal. "We're just beginning to work on that," Hemlepp said.

Andy Thompson, spokesman for Duke Energy, said the company could be forced to spend millions to rebuild the five ponds at two of its three Ohio plants. He said the changes aren't necessary.

After a 90-day comment period, the EPA will decide which of its proposed regulations it will use.

shunt@dispatch.com

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