Coal ash taints groundwater

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110725/NEWS11/307250034/Coal-ash-taints-groundwater-at-TVA-sites-report-finds

Inspector General report finds nine of TVA’s plant sites have contamination

A new report says groundwater contamination from coal ash has been found at Gallatin and eight of the nine other Tennessee Valley Authority fossil power plant sites where testing is being done.

Levels of toxic substances found at the Gallatin plant site in Sumner County and at the Cumberland site, 50 miles northwest of Nashville, are high enough that they could create a health hazard, the report says. Beryllium, cadmium and nickel levels are above drinking water standards at Gallatin, as are arsenic, selenium and vanadium at Cumberland.

One major surprise also showed up in the review by TVA’s Office of Inspector General: For more than a decade, the TVA had been finding substances in groundwater at its Allen coal-fired plant in Memphis that indicated toxic metals could be leaking from a coal ash pond there.

Arsenic above today’s allowable levels was found repeatedly in a monitoring well on the site, which is in a sensitive location. The plant and its ash ponds lie above a deep, high-quality aquifer that supplies drinking water to Memphis and nearby areas.

“I was not aware of this until today,” Chuck Head, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s senior director for land programs, said Friday after The Tennessean provided a copy of the TVA document.

“We would obviously have liked them to report it to us when they found the arsenic. But now that we have the information, we are going to work with them to try to resolve the problem.”

TVA declined requests for interviews on the topic, but spokeswoman Barbara Martocci sent an email, saying the legal limits for contaminants at Allen were met at the time of the testing.

“Even though some parameters were measured at levels higher than background, there were no exceedances of EPA municipal drinking water limits,” she wrote.

That was the case, up to a point.

TVA quit testing when the EPA tightened its standard — what’s called the Maximum Contaminant Level, the report said. Samples taken before then had showed arsenic levels above the new, higher standard.

“Testing has not been performed since the Maximum Contaminant Level was lowered,” the report said.

The toxic substances typically are found in small amounts — parts per billion. At the Gallatin site, they are likely moving down to and being diluted in the Cumberland River, Head said.

Similarly, at Allen in Memphis, the most likely result is discharge of the groundwater directly into the nearby Mississippi River and a lake there, he said. The threat to the Memphis aquifer is minimal.

Head said the state is set to talk Tuesday to TVA as they work toward a solution.

He said more monitoring wells will likely be needed to determine how large the contaminated plume is underground at the Gallatin plant.

’08 spill was catalyst

The OIG investigation of groundwater contamination at TVA coal ash sites, released June 21, began as a result of questions raised during congressional testimony following the December 2008 ash spill in East Tennessee.

A mountain of damp ash had buckled at TVA’s Kingston plant and 5.4 million cubic yards of the waste, which contains mercury, cadmium, lead, selenium, arsenic and other potentially toxic substances, cascaded into yards, fields and the Emory River.

The event brought national attention to the lack of regulation of coal ash and helped spark proposed rules last year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that are being argued over today.

The OIG report is considered important on several counts by the Environmental Integrity Project that has been gathering data on coal ash sites.

“The list of plants where monitoring is taking place at TVA is notable for what is missing,” said Russell Boulding, a hydro-geologist and soil scientist working with the environmental advocacy group.

That includes the absence of testing at the ash impoundment at TVA’s closed Watts Bar Plant coal-fired plant, 60 miles southwest of Knoxville. No monitoring is done around Watts Bar, where an old, unlined ash pond is located.

Spokeswoman Martocci said it’s not required.

“It is not an active plant, and there were no solid waste permits (or other regulations) that required groundwater monitoring for the site,” she wrote.

The legacy ash pond there is under study for permanent closure, which, when officially closed, could require monitoring by the state.

Coal ash, once viewed as harmless, contains a variety of heavy metals in low concentrations. Without proper protection, they can leach into groundwater and move to drinking water sources, such as well water, posing “significant public health concerns,” according to an EPA report.

Some of the substances can also move up the food chain.

Martocci said TVA’s coal ash sites pose no threat.

“The small amount of heavy metals or other potential contaminants identified in groundwater at the fossil sites are confined to the TVA reservation and do not impact off-site drinking water sources,” Martocci wrote. “Moreover, there are no potable water supplies down-gradient from these sites.”

Data gap frustrating

The Environmental Integrity Project is among groups that have been advocating for the EPA to regulate coal ash, but a lack of monitoring nationally in the past means little data is available.

“This has been a big source of frustration for those of us who are looking at the impacts of disposal practices,” Boulding said.

At least in Tennessee there is some information, he said. Data, including this new report, is growing in the wake of the Kingston spill, and more is forthcoming. TVA voluntarily put in 29 groundwater monitoring wells last year at its power plant coal ash sites. Results from samples are expected this year.

In Colorado and some other states, the group can find virtually no data despite a large number of coal-fired plants  pumping out coal ash, Boulding said.

Still, the EPA has found about 70 cases where coal ash has caused fish kills, sullied wells and tainted land in a 2007 report. The EIP, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club have put out reports on scores of other cases.

Time of reckoning

Coal, which has long provided cheap electricity nationwide, has also generated vast quantities of ash in Tennessee and around the country. After burning, the leftover chunks and flakes have generally been flooded with water for sluicing to ponds where the ash settles out. The water is then pumped into a river or lake. Coal ash has been left in the ponds, mounded beside rivers, placed in old coal mines and loaded into gravel pits.

Some has been spread on roadways or used to make walking paths. And some has been recycled in asphalt or other products .

Since at least the 1980s, with growing coal ash wastes and disasters environmentalists have been pressing for regulation.

Coal industry representatives have said federal regulation would be cumbersome and costly and want to leave it to states.

TVA officials have said they’re getting ahead of the curve. They announced plans earlier to convert to more costly but preferred dry ash disposal, which experts say makes ash easier to manage and less likely to contaminate groundwater. It also leaves materials available for recycling.

Though monitoring hasn’t been required, TVA carried out voluntary testing at the Allen plant ash ponds in Memphis from 1988-2008, according to the OIG report.

Elevated levels of boron and sulfate — which indicate ash releases from the impoundments there — and also arsenic “have been historically higher than the background data,” the report said.

“According to TVA personnel, these levels have not been reported to (the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) because the testing was not required,” it said.

The report gave specific data for a few plant sites, but not for Allen. It did say that arsenic levels measured in the past were above today’s current safe limit.