| 11/6/2009 3:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Louisville resident Nate Peterson speaks during a public hearing in Bedford, Ky. The Kentucky Division of Water hearing was for a Louisville Gas & Electric request to expand its existing ash pond in Trimble County. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie) |
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| Wallace McMullen, of the Cumberland Chapter of the Sierra Club, reads a written statement on behalf of the Sierra Club. (Staff photo by Ken Ritchie) |
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Environmentalists, citizens speak out on plan to expand LG&E ash pond in Trimble Co.
Sara Denhart
Courier Staff Writer
Dozens of environmentalists and Louisville residents expressed their concerns about a proposal to expand the coal ash treatment basin at the Louisville Gas & Electric Co. Trimble County Generating Plant during a public hearing Thursday night at the Morgan Community Center in Bedford.
The proposed expansion would create walls 100 feet high on the existing pond on the 2,247-acre site on Wise's Landing Road in Trimble County. The ash treatment basin's north, south and west dikes would be expanded. The existing pond, which was built in 1991 and incorporates a clay liner, has a 40-foot dam with bottom ash, fly ash and gypsum stored in the treatment basin. The pond, which is in the floodplain of the Ohio River, is about 30 miles upstream from Louisville's drinking water intake.
"We don't want to solve one problem by creating another. The health of the people are at stake," said Margaret Stewart, Louisville resident. "Water is not a resource. It is a source of life. The Ohio River is not a convenience here. It is not a sewer pipe."
"I'm sick of drinking Louisville's (wastes), Trimble County's mess, Clifty Creek's mess... ," said John Blair, president of Valley Watch in Evansville, Ind. "It goes on and on. It doesn't stop."
The group of activists from the Sierra Club, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and other pro-environmental clubs said Thursday night that the proposed permit would allow 2.3 million gallons of scrubber sludge wastewater to be discharged into a pond and then straight into the Ohio River without any treatment. The scrubber sludge, the environmentalists said, is waste material from the plant's air pollution control devices and contains toxins, including heavy metals, acids, sulfates and dissolved solids.
"What kind of protection is this?" said Wallace McMullen, a member of the Cumberland Chapter of the Sierra Club. "LG&E likes to talk about cheap electricity, but we will be paying for it with our health."
Along with the potential toxins in the drinking water, environmentalists are also concerned that the proposed larger ash treatment basin will fail. The failure would be as devastating as the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant fly ash pond spill. The dike on the fly ash pond collapsed in December 2008, dumping 1 billion gallons of gray sludge into countryside and waterways. It was the largest fly ash release in United States history.
"How long will we be forced to live without water?" said Mary Love, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Oldham County resident.
Despite the outpouring of Jefferson County, Ky., residents, only a handful of Courierarea residents attended the Kentucky Division of Water public hearing Thursday night.
One of those residents was Richard Hill, who is the president of Save The Valley, a pro-environmental group based in Southern Indiana. Hill said he and his group have been working to improve environmental standards for the Trimble County plant for more than 30 years.
"I feel it was important to be here tonight," Hill said. "We believe the permit is not adequate."
Along with the permit discussed Thursday night, LG&E executives have planned other environmental-related projects for the Trimble County plant. The plan was outlined in the company's application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, which was filed with the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
In the plan, Lonnie E. Bellar, vice president of state regulation and rates for LG&E, said the plan for 2009 is to have an air quality control system installed and operational at the Trimble County Generating Plant No. 2.
Next would be expansion of the Trimble station's ash treatment basin and gypsum storage pond. The company wants to expand the existing ash treatment basin and activate its constructed, but unused, gypsum storage pond in 2010.
After that, landfills at Trimble County and Cane Run generating stations would be built. The landfills would take 18 to 24 months to build, starting in the second half of 2010.
Capital, operating and maintenance costs would be recovered by reusing the coal combustion landfill rather than disposing of it. The power company was contacted by a cement manufacturer in St. Louis, Mo., who wants to use the ash from the Trimble County station for raw material in cement production. Company executives said the reuse could divert as much as 95 percent of fly ash produced.
LG&E officials contend the permit requested meets the criteria established in their industry, and no direct discharges into the Ohio River would occur.
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