The Tennessee Valley Authority should implement a groundwater protection plan to minimize the degradation of aquifers near its coal-fired plants, the Environmental Integrity Project says in a Nov. 6 report. The group credited the federal power producer for its decision to phase out ash ponds and replace them with landfills, which TVA did after about 5.4 million cu yd of wet ash from the 1,456-MW Kingston, Tenn., plant flowed over about 300 acres and into the Emory River in 2008, when a retaining wall collapsed. Several weeks later, TVA had a second, smaller spill in Alabama that sent water and gypsum into a nearby creek.
TVA's ash ponds and landfills have contaminated groundwater under and around all 11 of its coal-fired powerplants. In some cases, pollution drains into nearby rivers and streams, the environmental group said. It called the problem chronic and persistent.