The Tennessee Valley Authority will drain old coal-fired power plant ash storage ponds in three states and cap, cover and monitor the remaining residuals under a final environmental impact statement, issued on June 10. But environmental groups say they will sue to have materials at some sites excavated and moved to lined storage.
“The Environmental Protection Agency agreed there was no more or less environmental concern with leaving the dry ash in place versus moving it,” says a TVA spokesman. The utility, which operates in seven southern states, has 10 legacy impoundments in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky that date to the 1950s. They vary in size from 10 to nearly 400 acres and contain millions of cubic yards of fly-ash, bottom-ash, boiler-slag and flue-gas desulfurization materials.