Oops! Dominion Virginia Power Apparently "Forgot" 2.1 Million Tons Of Coal Ash
State lawmakers this week agreed to stretch out a regulatory review of Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to permanently store coal ash at four sites, including in Chesapeake. Environmental groups are hoping the extra time will enable a closer look at pollution risks from keeping the ash in place and at alternatives like recycling or moving it to lined landfills. But assessments planned by Dominion to help state regulators decide next year if the cap-in-place proposals are still sound may not include most of the ash stored at the Chesapeake site, the company has indicated.
If that’s the case, the Chesapeake assessment – and any state decision that it contributes to – would be deeply flawed, said Deborah Murray, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. The Charlottesville-based group represents the Sierra Club in a federal lawsuit against Dominion over the ash at the Chesapeake Energy Center, along the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River.
In a letter to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Murray said that Dominion has already failed to comply with a federal rule governing coal ash by not including in its Chesapeake closure plan about 2.1 million tons of ash in “unlined lagoons” that ceased being used decades ago. That’s about two-thirds of the ash accumulated during 61 years of coal-fired power generation that ended at the site in 2014.
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Rob Richardson, a Dominion spokesman, said that a new DEQ permit application for Chesapeake isn’t expected until after an outside company with coal ash waste-management experience finishes assessing the site. The bill passed by the General Assembly this week only requires ponds subject to the federal coal ash rule to be part of that assessment, he said in an email, and the lagoons don’t fit that description. Richardson didn’t provide further explanation. An estimated 2.1 million tons of ash drained into the lagoons until 1984, when a lined landfill was built atop much of the site. The landfill holds an estimated 1.2 million tons of ash. The remainder, about 60,000 tons, is in a small pond area that Dominion has indicated it may excavate.
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http://pilotonline.com/news/local/environment/new-review-of-coal-ash-at-dominion-power-s-chesapeake/article_6ea9bf75-5c82-5153-9b7b-589e46ccd17a.html
