Tag: Allen Fossil Plant

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Environmentalists Blast TVA’s Next Power Move

(Credit: TVA)

Environmental groups immediately blasted plans by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to build new electric power generators that run on fossil fuels, saying the move will bring higher electric bills and more pollution. 

TVA filed its plans Wednesday, which are to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday. The federal agency said it wants to build six new aeroderivative combustion turbine (CT) units at the Allen Combustion Turbine (ACT) site. 

That site sits close to the now-closed Allen Fossil Plant, which used coal to make electricity. The ACT site should not be confused with the new-ish Allen Combined Cycle Plant, which uses natural gas to make power and is the main source of the city’s electricity. 

The Allen Combustion Turbine facility houses 20 turbine units that use a mix of diesel and natural gas to produce energy. These smaller turbines run “rarely,” according to a TVA spokesperson, and “are designed to only be used when peak demand requires.”

However, 16 of those units failed to start during December’s Winter Storm Elliott. This cut TVA’s overall power generation here by 240 megawatts. Those 16 units ceased operations completely and now only two units at the facility are operable, providing a total of 120 megawatts of power at the site.

TVA said Wednesday it hopes to build six of them to generate a total of 200 megawatts. This will “help meet the growing system demand,” the utility said. It will also help “facilitate the integration of renewable generation onto the TVA bulk transmission system.” This means the new turbines would offer backup power to stabilize the TVA grid should renewable sources of energy fail or simply not produce enough power. 

“For instance, cloud patterns that temporarily block the sun and reduce solar generation require other generating units to respond to continue to reliably supply power to customers,” reads the TVA document. “Aeroderivative CTs are inherently well-suited to provide flexibility, enabling the remainder of the system to better integrate renewables.”

Construction would take about a year, TVA said. If approved, it would begin sometime in 2025 or 2026. 

Environmental groups quickly criticized the move. As it would use fossil fuels, they called it “dirty gas” and said the plan was “the federal utility’s latest move in its multi-billion-dollar gas spending spree, which is the largest fossil fuel buildout in the country.” Further, the new turbines “will lead to higher monthly power bills, reduce grid reliability, and worsen the impacts of the climate crisis.”

”Enough is enough,” KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution said in a statement. “Memphis families shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for TVA’s fossil fuel spending spree. The utility should instead invest in cheaper energy options, like solar power and energy efficiency programs that meet our energy needs while lowering monthly bills.” 

Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) Senior Attorney Amanda Garcia said TVA “is once again plowing ahead with plans to build expensive, unreliable, and outdated fossil fuel infrastructure.”

“Families across the Tennessee Valley already felt the impacts of the federal utility’s obsession with fossil fuels when TVA’s coal and gas plants failed during last year’s winter storm, causing rolling blackouts throughout the region,” Garcia said in a statement. “Instead of putting all its eggs in the fossil fuel basket, TVA should invest in more diverse sources of energy — including renewables and energy efficiency — which can lower power bills while creating a more reliable grid.” 

A Sierra Club report issued Tuesday showed TVA has plans to build more gas-powered energy sources than any other utility in the nation, said Amy Kelly, the Field Organizing Strategist for organization.

“Memphis should not have to endure even more pollution and higher electric bills because of TVA’s refusal to seriously incorporate energy efficiency and renewable energy in its planning, planning that is largely hidden from public view,” Kelly said.

The public will have 30 days to weigh in on TVA’s new plan, after it is published Thursday. The agency will also host an in-person, public open-house meeting. Click here for more information on that meeting. 

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Report: TVA’s Shuttered Memphis Plant Ranks #10 In Most Contaminated U.S. Sites

The massive east ash pond at the Allen Fossil Plant. (Photo: Southern Environmental Law Center).

by Jamie Satterfield, Tennessee Lookout

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash dumps in Memphis rank among the worst in the nation for contamination of groundwater with cancer-causing toxins, according to a new report that relied on the power provider’s own records.

TVA’s coal ash dumps at the now-defunct Allen Fossil Plant rank as the 10th worst contaminated sites in the country in a report released earlier this month that examined groundwater monitoring data from coal-fired plant operators, including TVA.

TVA’s own monitoring data shows its Memphis dumps are leaking arsenic at levels nearly 300 times safe drinking water limits. Unsafe levels of boron, lead and molybdenum are also being recorded there.

The report, prepared and published by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, shows that coal ash dumps at every TVA coal-fired facility across Tennessee are leaking dangerous contaminants at unsafe levels, including arsenic, cobalt, lithium, molybedenum, boron, lead and sulfate, into groundwater.

Coal plant owners are ignoring the law and avoiding cleanup because they don’t want to pay for it.

– Lisa Evans, senior ttorney at Earthjustice

TVA, the nation’s largest public power company, was ordered in 2015 to investigate the extent of contamination caused by its coal ash dumps, come up with a plan to clean up its coal ash pollution and decide what to do with the dumps to prevent future contamination.

But the utility still hasn’t completed its investigation at all its Tennessee plants or announced final plans for the millions of tons of coal ash — the byproduct from burning coal to produce electricity — TVA has stashed away in unlined, leaky dirt pits across the state.

The utility is not alone in dallying to comply with the 2015 directive, known as the Environmental Protection Agency’s “coal ash rule,” according to the new report — Poisonous Coverup: The Widespread Failure of the Power Industry to Clean Up Coal Ash Dumps.

“Seven years after the EPA imposed the first federal rules requiring the cleanup of coal ash waste dumps, only about half of the power plants that are contaminating groundwater agree that cleanup is necessary, and 96 percent of these power plants are not proposing any groundwater treatment,” the report stated.

Report: Ongoing contamination in Memphis

According to the report, 91 percent of the 292 coal ash dump sites in the nation are leaking dangerous toxins, heavy metals and radioactive material into groundwater at dangerous levels, “often threatening streams, rivers and drinking water aquifers.”

“In every state where coal is burned, power companies are violating federal health protections,” said Lisa Evans, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice. “Coal plant owners are ignoring the law and avoiding cleanup because they don’t want to pay for it.”

TVA officials responded to the report’s claims in a statement:

“It’s important to note that the Earthjustice report is a flawed document. For example, it does not account for state regulations of coal ash sites that either complement the federal coal ash rule or serve the purpose of applying additional, more stringent oversight over coal ash sites.

“This is the case in Tennessee where TVA is under a commissioner’s order to conduct a thorough environmental study of the sites to help determine the closure method.

“According to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), Tennessee is the only state in the nation that has all coal-fired power plants under orders to complete investigation and remediation. Tennessee is the only state in the nation to require an electric utility to conduct an environmental investigation and remediation of coal ash disposal locations that include both active permitted coal ash disposal areas, as well as historical coal ash disposal areas.

“TVA is an industry leader in the safe, secure management of coal ash, implementing best practices years before they were required by the 2015 federal coal ash rule and pioneering new technology to ensure our coal ash sites are safe. For example, six years before the federal coal ash rule was enacted, TVA committed to eliminating wet handling of coal ash at all our facilities.  The conversion from wet to dry handling is completed.

“TVA’s robust network of more than 450 groundwater monitoring wells ensures the protection of water resources and the environment.  Where groundwater monitoring results indicate corrective action is necessary, TVA is following the corrective action process outlined in the federal coal ash rule and applicable state rules.

“Decisions regarding the closure and long-term storage and management of coal ash sites are based on the unique characteristics of each site. In Tennessee, TVA is under a commissioner’s order to conduct a thorough environmental study of the sites to help determine the closure method. Kentucky and Alabama regulators are similarly exercising their oversight through their state regulations. TVA, with oversight from its regulators, will continue to use science, data, and analysis to inform those decisions and each site will be closed in an environmentally safe manner,” concluded the statement.

The coal ash dumps at TVA’s plant in Memphis had been leaking levels of arsenic as high as 300 times safe drinking water standards for years before the utility publicly acknowledged the contamination in 2017.

“It’s important to note that the Earthjustice report is a flawed document. For example, it does not account for state regulations of coal ash sites that either complement the federal coal ash rule or serve the purpose of applying additional, more stringent oversight over coal ash sites.” — Statement from TVA in response to Earthjustice report.

TVA shut down the Allen plant in 2018 and later announced it would remove 4 million tons of coal ash from leaky dirt pits there and haul it to an above-ground landfill in a black residential neighborhood in south Memphis.

The EIP and Earthjustice report says TVA isn’t doing enough to prevent future contamination at the Allen site. According to the report, TVA “has not posted groundwater monitoring data or otherwise implemented the coal ash rule” at one of the dumps at the Allen plant because the utility “believes the pond is exempt from” the rule.

Aerial of the TVA plant in Kingston Tennessee, on the Clinch River. An ash dam spill on December 22 2008 resulted in a major environmental issue for the area. (Photo: Karen Kasmauski for Getty Images)

“We know that TVA has monitored the groundwater pursuant to state law, and that the data show ongoing contamination with high concentrations of boron, molybdenum, and other pollutants,” the report stated.

“TVA should use these data to immediately confirm exceedances in both detection and assessment monitoring and proceed through the coal ash rule’s corrective action process,” the report continued.

Residents in south Memphis have complained that TVA intentionally targeted a Black community when choosing a landfill site and did not allow them a say in its decision.

Dangerous contaminants at unsafe levels

TVA is not required to monitor groundwater contamination for many of the 26 dangerous ingredients in coal ash, so data on the levels of deadly constituents including radium are not publicly available. But of the handful of contaminants TVA is required to track under the coal ash rule, the utility’s Tennessee coal ash dumps are leaking unsafe levels of most of them, the report stated.

TVA’s coal ash dumps at its Gallatin Fossil Plant are polluting groundwater with lithium at 41 times safe limits as well as dangerous levels of arsenic, boron, cobalt and molybdenum. Dumps at that Middle Tennessee plant rank 80th on the list of 292 worst contaminated sites.

Dumps at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County — the site of the nation’s largest coal ash waste spill in 2008 and the impetus behind the enactment of the federal coal ash rule — are leaking arsenic at levels 16 times higher than safe drinking water limits, the report stated. Dumps there are also leaking cobalt at levels 20 times safe standards, lithium at 10 times safe standards and molybdenum at five times safe standards. Kingston ranks 82nd on the list of worst contaminated sites.

Coal ash dumps at TVA’s Bull Run Fossil Plant in Anderson County are contaminating groundwater with lithium at a rate of 13 times the safe standard, arsenic at a rate of seven times the safe standard, boron at nine times the safe standard and molybdenum at five times the safe standard, according to the report. Bull Run’s dumps rank 101 on the list.

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Cumberland Fossil Plant. (Photo: Courtesy of TVA)

TVA’s coal ash dumps at its Cumberland Fossil Plant in Stewart County, Tenn., rank 115th on the list, leaking boron at 22 times safe levels, as well as unsafe levels of arsenic, cobalt, lithium and molybdenum, the report showed.

Dumps at TVA’s Johnsonville Fossil Plant in Humphreys County, Tenn., are leaking cobalt at nine times safe levels and boron at four times safe levels, according to the report. Coal ash pits at its long-shuttered John Sevier plant in Hawkins County, Tenn., are leaking lithium at unsafe levels, the report stated.

 

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.

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Council Wants Another Review of TVA’s Coal Ash Removal Plan

A coal ash pond at TVA's Allen Fossil Plant. (Credit: Southern Environmental Law Center)

A Memphis City Council committee wants another formal review of Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plan to dump coal ash here, citing concerns from residents and a murky process with little cooperation from the power provider. 

Nearly 3.5 million cubic yards (nearly 707 million gallons or 2,169 acre feet) of coal ash were left behind when the Allen Fossil Plant stopped generating electricity in 2018. The ash is now stored in two massive ponds at the old coal-plant site, just south of McKellar Lake and Presidents Island. One pond on the west side of the campus was buried years ago and now looks like a large, grassy park. The other pond — the East Ash Pond — is murky, black, and lifeless but for some brawny strands of what appears to be sawgrass. 

Under these ponds, and because of the coal ash in them, TVA found high levels of arsenic and other toxins in groundwater. Arsenic levels were more than 300 times higher than federal drinking water standards. The toxins were deemed a threat to the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the source of the city’s famously pure drinking water, and TVA made plans to remove the coal ash. 

But the TVA failed to tell the council in 2020 just where they’d dump the coal ash. The site was revealed in 2021 as the South Shelby Landfill and the destination was criticized as it would bring trucks, noise, traffic, and air pollution to neighborhoods along the path. Many of those would be predominantly Black neighborhoods. 

Since then, council members said Tuesday they’ve heard myriad concerns from constituents about the plan. 

“The folks in South Memphis have urged us to ask TVA to do something that TVA seems unwilling to do,” said council member JB Smiley.  

Smiley was an original sponsor of Tuesday’s resolution, which asks for TVA to conduct a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

The report would “provide residents of South Memphis site-specific information about the impacts of TVA’s decision to move coal ash and to provide a meaningful opportunity for the affected community to be heard on how these impacts will affect them.” The report would give the “most current, detailed, and informative information now that the final destination and transportation plan” for the coal ash has been made public. 

Council member Chase Carlisle said while he feels someone is “looking just to beat on TVA,” he said he was “disappointed” in the dialog between TVA, Republic Services (the company that is set to haul the coal ash), and the council. Straightforward questions were not given straightforward answers, he said. Answers to follow-up questions went unanswered during the process. 

“I was very disappointed in what I thought was going to be a very transparent, ongoing dialog about how we could look for alternative solutions to an issue that concerns a great many people,” Carlisle said. “Instead it was, ‘we’re not coming back and we’re just going to move forward.’”

TVA said its previous review of the situation should stand as “no new information has become available that would change the conditions or conclusions” of it.

“Over the last five years, we have engaged with and listened to the Memphis community about the Allen restoration project,” said TVA spokesman Scott Brooks. “We share the same objectives of prioritizing safety and environmental stewardship while completing the project in a timely manner.

“We are fulfilling our promise to protect the Memphis aquifer, safely remove the coal ash and store it in a highly-engineered, lined landfill, and restore the Allen site for the benefit of the community.”

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Coal Ash Primer

The massive East Ash Pond at the Allen Fossil Plant (Credit: Southern Environmental Law Center)

Coal ash will be the focus of debate at Memphis City Hall probably for weeks to come as Memphis City Council members review a rule that might make it illegal to dump the stuff here.

If you’re new to the issue — maybe this is first time you’ve heard of coal ash — consider this a primer. 

Coal ash is what it really is: the ashes of coal left over after that coal was burned here by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to make power for the Memphis area. TVA closed the plant that burned coal for electricity, the Allen Fossil Plant, in 2018. The plant consumed 7,200 tons of coal per day, and after it was burned to make electricity, that coal left behind about 85,000 tons of ash every year. 

In 2018, TVA made the switch to the $975 million Allen Combined Cycle Plant, which burns natural gas — not coal — to power the Memphis area. The old coal plant was closed, but all that coal ash remains.   

The ash is now stored in two massive ponds at the old coal-plant site, just south of McKellar Lake and Presidents Island. One pond on the west side of the campus was buried years ago and now looks like a large, grassy park. The other pond — the East Ash Pond — is murky, black, and lifeless but for some brawny stands of what appears to be sawgrass.

Under these ponds, and because of the coal ash in them, TVA found high levels of arsenic and other toxins in groundwater. Arsenic levels were more than 300 times higher than federal drinking water standards. This was determined to be a threat to the Memphis Sand Aquifer — the source of the city’s famously pure drinking water — and TVA abandoned a plan to pump water from it for its new natural gas plant.   

For years, TVA weighed options to deal with the coal ash in the ponds. In March 2020, the agency announced it would dig up the coal ash, put it on trucks, and dump it at landfills in the Memphis area. At the time, environmentalists supported the measure but were concerned about the many trucks that would carry the coal ash through neighborhoods for years. 

The issue was largely dormant until TVA met resistance to the plan in a hearing before the Memphis City Council last month. In its first August meeting, the council considered two resolutions that would ban TVA from dumping the coal ash either in Shelby County or within a larger area that could pose threats to the aquifer. 

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Council Wants Halt on TVA Coal Ash Plan

The massive east ash pond at the Allen Fossil Plant. (Photo: Southern Environmental Law Center).

Memphis City Council members want a permanent halt to Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plan to dump coal ash here. 

Council members will review a resolution Tuesday that would stop TVA from dumping toxic coal ash from the now-retired Allen Fossil Plant on Presidents Island to two landfill sites — one in Whitehaven and the other in Tunica County, Mississippi. 

Both sites, according to the resolution, “are located within the Mississippi Embayment area as well as the New Madrid seismic impact zone.” Both of these factors increase the possibility for the pollution of the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the resolution says. 

“… in light of the many possible events that may occur, whether failure of manmade structures, or catastrophic natural events, the threat to the Memphis Sand Aquifer and this city’s drinking water is too grave for [coal ash] to be moved to a landfill in the city of Memphis, Shelby County, or any location within the Mississippi Embayment,” reads the resolution. 

The resolution “strongly opposes” the coal ash move. It says if TVA goes through with the plan “without approval of this body” that it conduct and publish another study (called a location restriction demonstrations review) before it does. 

TVA paused the plan to bury coal ash here last month, according to a story in The Commercial Appeal. The newspaper described confusion and consternation by council members at the time as TVA announced it would begin its coal ash dumping plan. 

TVA identified the plan to remove the toxic coal ash from the Allen plant in March 2020. 

In 2017, TVA found high levels of arsenic and other toxins in ground water close to ponds storing the coal ash. Arsenic levels were more than 300 times higher than federal drinking water standards. The discovery kicked off a years-long, sometimes-contentious series of events that TVA officials hope will end in 10 years. That’s how long they say it will take to finally remove the ash now sitting on nearly 120 acres.

The 500-acre site is about five miles southwest of Downtown Memphis, on the Southern bank of McKellar Lake. The plant had three units producing a max of 741 megawatts of power, enough to power 500,000 homes, according to a figure from Duke Energy.

While in use, the plant consumed 7,200 tons of coal per day. After it was burned to make electricity, that coal left behind about 85,000 tons of ash every year. TVA funneled that ash into two huge ponds — the East Ash Pond and West Ash Pond — on the site. It closed the massive East Pond in 2018.

But the Allen coal plant was replaced with the Allen Combined Cycle Natural Gas Plant, which went into operation May 2018. TVA wants to raze the old coal plant and return the land to its three owners — the city of Memphis, Shelby County, and Memphis Light, Gas & Water — for future development. Before it can do that, however, it has to deal with the ash.

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TVA Outlines Plan to Remove Coal Ash

CREDIT: Southern Environmental Law Center

Southern Environmental Law Center

An aerial shot shows the massive east ash pond at the Allen Fossil Plant.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has identified its preferred plan to remove the toxic coal ash from the now-idled Allen Fossil Plant, the first step down a long road to return the site to another functional use.

In 2017, the TVA found high levels of arsenic and other toxins in ground water close to ponds storing the coal ash. Arsenic levels were more than 300 times higher than federal drinking water standards.

The discovery kicked off a years-long, sometimes-contentious series of events that TVA officials hope will end in 10 years. That’s how long they say it will take to finally remove the ash now sitting on nearly 120 acres.

The 500-acre site is about five miles southwest of Downtown Memphis, on the Southern bank of McKellar Lake. The plant had three units producing a max of 741 megawatts of power, enough to power 500,000 homes, according to a figure from Duke Energy.

While in use, the plant consumed 7,200 tons of coal per day. After it was burned to make electricity, that coal left behind about 85,000 tons of ash every year. TVA funneled that ash into two huge ponds — the East Ash Pond and West Ash Pond — on the site. It closed the massive East Pond in 2018.

TVA

But the Allen coal plant was replaced with the Allen Combined Cycle Natural Gas Plant, which went into operation May 2018. TVA wants to raze the old coal plant and return the land to its three owners — the city of Memphis, Shelby County, and Memphis Light, Gas & Water — for future development. Before it can do that, however, it has to deal with the ash.
TVA

TVA’s new natural-gas-fueled Combined Cycle Plant.

TVA considered three options. The first was do nothing at all. But the agency said the option does not meet its goal to eliminate all wet coal ash storage at its coal plants by closing ash ponds across the TVA system.

The other two options were similar. They both aimed to close the ponds and remove the ash from the site. They differ in one big way. One plan would haul the ash to an approved landfill. For the other, TVA would have built a facility to transform the ash into usable products, like bricks.

In a massive, 221-page report issued Friday, TVA said it prefers to excavate the ash and store it in a landfill, mainly for expediency.
[pdf-1]
Building the re-use facility ”would extend the duration of closure, which would delay the future economic development of the site and result in greater direct and cumulative impacts associated with air emissions, noise emissions, impacts to transportation system, impacts to environmental justice communities, safety risks, and disruptions to the public associated with the extended time frame for closure.”

Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator for the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, said his grip is glad TVA has decided to “dig up all the contaminated ash.

“But we’re worried that not enough attention was paid to impacts to the communities that hundreds of trucks a day will be hauling (the ash) through,” Banbury said, noting he was also worried about the safety of the workers.

The report was prepared to inform the public on the risks involved with the move. It was also made to inform TVA decision-makers as they will select the final option for removing the toxic coal ash from the plant here.

However, TVA has identified six permitted landfills which could take the ash from Allen but has not selected a specific site.

“Each of the candidate landfill operators would be expected to have robust environmental plans, effective project designs, and a history of compliance that ensures minimal offsite impacts from storage of coal ash,” TVA said in a statement.

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TVA Outlines Next Moves to Possibly Remove Coal Ash

CREDIT: Toby Sells

Toby Sells

Water whooshes through two black pipes — both as big around a small pizza and long enough to hide their ends — with the gentle sound of a dishwasher humming out of sight.

The pipes snake nearly across the entire campus of the Allen Fossil Plant. For nearly 60 years, nearly all of Memphis’ electricity flowed from the massive plant close to Presidents Island.

That plant burned coal to make that electricity. That coal was reduced to mainly to ash when it was all burned up. That ash — containing toxins like arsenic and lead — was slurried with water and flowed into great ponds sitting just west and just east of the Allen plant.

Those ponds sit right on the bank of McKellar Lake, a broad inlet from the Mississippi River that cradles the south side of Presidents Island and fronts Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park and T.O. Fuller State Park.

Google Maps

An aerial view of the Allen Fossil Plant.

In 2017, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) found high levels of arsenic and other toxins in ground water close to the ponds. Arsenic levels were more than 300 times higher than federal drinking water standards.

The discovery kicked off a years-long, sometimes-contentious series of events that TVA officials hope will end in 10 years. That’s how long they say it will take to finally remove the ash now sitting on nearly 120 acres.

Environmental and drinking-water advocates here hope that move will finally remove the threat the has poses to the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the source of the city’s pristine drinking water.

The process to remove the ash is already underway. On Wednesday, those two black pipes — both as big around as a small pizza — whooshed treated water from those ponds straight into the Mississippi.
Toby Sells

TVA president and CEO Jeffrey Lyash spoke to reporters here Wednesday.

“There’s a deferred cost associated with the nearly 60 years benefit we all derived from places like the Allen Plant,” Jeffrey Lyash, president and CEO of TVA, said to reporters here Wednesday. “That deferred cost is coal combustion residuals [ash] and the decommissioning and dismantling of the plant and the restoration of the site so that it can be repurposed for economic development.”

Two ash storage ponds now hold ash buried at the Allen plant from as far back as 1959, when it was built and brought online by Memphis Light, Gas & Water.

The west ash pond was the site’s first. It was retired in 1978 and closed by the TVA in 2016. The ash in that ponds — some from 1959 — remains. Though, the broad pond is now covered in grass and a few trees. It looks inviting enough, as one TVA official put it, for a family reunion.

The east ash pond replaced the original west ash pond. The east pond was built in 1967, expanded in 1978, and is now 70 acres, according to the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. Water in the pond looked dark, standing about 50 yards from it. The area around it looks swampy, grown over by some tough, reedy weed — not inviting at all.
Toby Sells

Reporters gather before pumps and filters on the bank of the Allen plant’s east ash pond.

Crews began sucking the water from the east pond about two weeks ago, according to Angela Austin, TVA’s construction manager at Allen site. Lyash, the CEO, called Austin the “boots on the ground” for the project to remove the coal ash and decommission and dismantle the old plant.

In those two weeks, nearly 3 million gallons of free water — the water on top of the ash — has been removed from the pond. The water is filtered to remove any particles in it and treated to adjust its pH to clear federal standards that allows TVA to dump the water in the river. Austin said she hopes to have all of that water removed in the next two or three months. When it’s gone, nearly 17 million gallons will be filtered, treated, snaked through those black pipes, and flowed into the Mississippi.

Once that water is gone, crews will begin removing water that’s still in the ash. Once that water is gone, the ash will be stabilized enough to be removed.

Coal ash ponds near TVA’s Allen Fossil power plant

TVA wants to remove it, Lyash said, all of it — from the east and west ash ponds. But part of that decision lies with federal environmental officials and with Memphians. A process is now underway to decide exactly how the TVA will deal with the ash.

As a part of that, TVA held a public hearing on the matter here Wednesday. Lyash said Wednesday TVA is also going to create a citizens advisory group to watch and review the process on an ongoing basis.

The process underway now will determine many of the next steps TVA will take to remove the ash. Can the agency remove it? If so, how? If so, how can they transport it? Truck? Rail? If they can transport it, where can they take it? If they can take it some place, what kind of container can they store it in?

Southern Environmental Law Center

An aerial shot shows the massive east ash pond at the Allen Fossil Plant.

One interesting question is whether or not TVA will be able to use the ash, instead of just storing it some place. The American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) said in 2012 that about half of coal ash that is reused is made into concrete, grout, or gypsum wallboard.

But the biggest question for Memphians is how TVA plans will protect the environment and, more specifically, the drinking water here.

Contaminants from the coal ash ponds leeched into groundwater here. It made it 40 feet into the ground into a shallower alluvial aquifer, not into the drinking-water source, TVA said. Around the time of the discovery, TVA said it wanted to drill five wells into the Memphis Sand (the drinking water source) to pump water from it to cool it’s brand new Allen Combined Cycle Plant, the one that replaced the fossil plant.

TVA

TVA’s new natural-gas-fueled Combined Cycle Plant.

However, some worried that running the wells would pull toxins from the east ash pond into the Memphis Sand aquifer. TVA launched an investigation run by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Memphis. The groups found that the Memphis Sand was hydraulically linked to that contaminated, alluvial aquifer above it. By this time, though, TVA had decided not to use the wells.

“All the evidence says not only isn’t there any drinking-water contamination or environmental contamination beyond what we’ve characterized, but there really isn’t any migration that would suggest it would be an issue in the future,” said Lyash.

Toby Sells

Two of 57 wells monitor the ground water around an ash pond at the Allen plant.

TVA is watching the situation closely. It has now expanded its of monitoring wells around the east ash pond to 57.

But Memphis will have a second opinion. In November, to the U of M’s Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research (CAESER) wont a $5 million grant to study the aquifer over the next five years.

A U of M news release at the time said MLGW “has grown increasingly concerned over water quality impacts to our sole source of drinking water, the Memphis aquifer. Above the Memphis Aquifer is a protective clay layer which shields our drinking water from pollution, but gaps, or ‘breaches’ in the clay have been discovered.”

Lyash said TVA will return the Allen site to a “best-of-industry standard” using the “best-in-industry practices in science.”

“We’re going to protect the environment,” Lyash said. “We have the interests of the citizens of Shelby County in Memphis right at the heart of that. So, you shouldn’t be concerned that TV is going to do anything other than the right thing here at our Allen.”

Toby Sells

TVA’s Angela Austin speaks to reporters at the Allen plant.

For Austin, TVA’s mission at Allen is personal. She’s the “boots-on-the-ground” Allen construction manager. Austin said she has been a Memphian for 24 years and lives now in Hickory Hill.

“It’s very important that we get it right, because I’m the one who drinks this water every day, Austin said. “It has to be successful. This is where my family has been born and raised.”

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Public Meeting to Focus on TVA Coal Ash Removal

CREDIT: Southern Environmental Law Center

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

An open meeting next week will focus on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) plans for the coal ash stored now at the now-shuttered Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis.

The coal-fired plant was retired last year after the new natural-gas-fired Allen Combined Cycle plant opened. The Fossil Plant’s buildings sit on about 502 acres of land that TVA either owns or leases.

Next week’s meeting will focus on a draft of a document called an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). It looks at the potential environmental effects of various options to remove the coal ash now stored at the site. That document is available at www.tva.com/nepa.

Here’s how TVA describes the options in the EIS:

“TVA is considering the removal of coal ash to an existing offsite landfill, either by truck, rail or barge, with the option to beneficially reuse as much of the material as possible. That could include construction of an offsite proposed beneficial reuse facility to process the ash.

“TVA has eliminated from consideration the option of closing the ash impoundments in place. TVA does not solely own the property where the fossil site is located, and the proposed actions would make the land available for future economic development projects.

“The options would include closure of the East Ash Pond, West Ash Pond. and Metal Cleaning Pond. TVA has also considered potential environmental impacts associated with the need for fill material such as soil and clay, including the locations of such material.”

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

For these considerations, TVA is hosting two public open houses. The first will be on Tuesday, October 8th, from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Mitchell Community Center, 602 West Mitchell Road in Memphis. Public comments on the draft EIS will be accepted at this event.

The second public open house will focus specifically on the draft EIS. It is scheduled for Wednesday, October 30th from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, Meeting Room C, 3030 Poplar Avenue in Memphis.

Comments on the draft EIS are being accepted through November 25th 2019, and can be submitted online at www.tva.com/nepa, by email to wdwhite0@tva.gov, or by mail to W. Douglas White, NEPA Compliance Specialist, 400 W. Summit Hill Drive, WT 11B, Knoxville, TN 37902.

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TVA Wants to Demolish Allen Fossil Plant

CREDIT: Southern Environmental Law Center

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) wants to demolish the coal-fired, now-idled Allen Fossil Plant but wants the public’s opinion on a slate of options for the buildings.

The plant was retired last year after the new natural-gas-fired Allen Combined Cycle plant opened. The Fossil Plant’s buildings sit on about 502 acres of land that TVA either owns or leases, “which could be repurposed for future economic development projects,” according to TVA.

The agency has already outlined several options for the buildings. They include decontaminating and demolishing the buildings, removing the stacks, or leaving the plant as is. Though that last option is included as a basis for comparison,TVA said.

“TVA’s preferred alternative of full demolition would remove the powerhouse and associated structures to three feet below final grade, resulting in a brownfield site,” reads a Friday statement from TVA. “Certain buildings would remain for continued use including the switchyard and site security building. The Allen combustion turbine natural gas units would not be affected.”

Visit the TVA website for more information and to leave your comment.

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TVA Plans to Remove Coal Ash from Allen Site

CREDIT: Southern Environmental Law Center

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

UPDATE:

Shortly after TVA announced on Wednesday that it would remove coal ash from ponds at the Allen Fossil Plant, state Senator Brian Kelsey announced he’d filed a resolution calling for the removal of coal ash from ponds at the Allen Fossil Plant.

“Clean water is one of our most precious resources in West Tennessee,” said Senator Kelsey. “We should be doing everything we can to ensure that it remains safe and clean for future generations.

“Action must be taken to ensure that arsenic and other toxic compounds found in the coal ash landfill sites are not leaking into our water supply. It is essential that the coal ash containment ponds at the plant be emptied and closed as quickly as possible in the interest of public health.”

Senate Joint Resolution 29 asks the TVA to take action to ensure Memphis water is protected from a potential breach.

ORIGINAL POST:

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plans to remove the coal ash from its now-idled Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis.

TVA now has two coal ash ponds at the Allen plant and some coal ash around what TVA calls the metal cleaning pond. Coal ash is left behind after coal was burned to fuel the plant and make electricity. That ash, however, is toxic and arsenic and other chemicals have leaked into groundwater under the coal ash ponds at Allen.

TVA closed the ponds after it stopped using the fossil plant, switching to new plant that uses natural gas to make electricity. But the agency considered sealing the ponds and storing the ash in place. But TVA announced Wednesday that option is off the table.

Instead, TVA will consider options that remove the ash. They are now deciding where the ash will go.

One option has TVA building and using a “a proposed beneficial re-use facility to process (coal ash) materials. The other would move the ash in “to an offsite landfill location.”

Southern Environmental Law Center

Aerial shots of TVA’s Memphis power plants.

Removing the ash, too, could make the “closure area land available for future economic development projects in the greater Memphis area,” according to a statement from TVA’s website.

“Bottom line is TVA does not own this property, and we think this is the best option for the future economic development options,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said in a statement.

Members of the local branch of the Sierra Club and the Protect Our Aquifer (POA) groups said the decision to remove the ash was a step in the right direction.

“Closure-in-place was never an option in mind, not in anybody’s mind,” said Ward Archer, president of POA. “That’s the equivalent of doing nothing, basically. It can’t be done. We all know there’s no protective clay layer below (the coal ash ponds). They have got to get (the coal ash) out of there.

Scott Banbury, the Sierra Club’s Tennessee chapter conservation programs coordinator, said the move was “great news.”

“We knew already their preferred option was to dig the (coal ash) up and move it somewhere else,” Banbury said. “It’s nice that they are saying that publicly.”