The Tennessee Valley Authority will move forward with a plan to permanently and safely store coal ash and other coal combustion residuals on TVA property at 10 locations across the area.
The decision follows a year-long review of the potential environmental impacts detailed in an Environmental Impact Statement.
The EIS looked at two options for the future CCR storage, closure-in-place and closure-by-removal. The preferred option for the 10 locations is closure-in-place.
"Based on our analyses and decades of available monitoring data, we believe that TVA's CCR management activities are not harming human health or the environment," says TVA vice president of Safety, River Management and Environment, John McCormick. "We found that digging up the coal ash and moving it someplace else has more potential environmental and safety impacts than closure-in-place and adds significantly more time and costs for our ratepayers."
Closing CCR impoundments in place involves removing moisture from the material, then adding a liner system, or cap, on top to keep rainwater out.
Studies by TVA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirm that this capping system will further reduce potential impacts on groundwater and helps protect the structural stability of the material. EPA noted in its CCR rule that closure-in-place could be just as safe as removal.
TVA received no objections from federal, state, or local agencies to closing impoundments in place.
This action supports TVA's goal of eliminating all CCR storage at its coal plants and will meet the federal CCR rule.
