TVA says coal ash removal at Gallatin would take 24 years

The Tennessee Valley Authority says it would take 24 years to dig up and move its coal ash at a Tennessee power plant under a court order it still might appeal.

The federal utility said it will start the massive undertaking at its Gallatin Fossil Plant in Middle Tennessee within 30 days unless a judge orders otherwise, according to TVA’s court filing in U.S. District Court in Nashville.

Cleanup could be halted at least temporarily if TVA appeals and asks for the requirement to be blocked, and the judge approves. TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the utility has until early October to consider whether to appeal, but last month TVA President Bill Johnson said it is “very likely” TVA will appeal the requirement to dig up and remove the coal ash at Gallatin.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled in favor of two environmental groups and ordered the cleanup last month, saying the facility’s unlined coal ash storage is leaking pollutants into the Cumberland River and violating the Clean Water Act.

However, Crenshaw added there’s scant evidence so far of concrete harm beyond mere risk and presence of pollutants.

TVA said the 24-year timeline assumes the utility can set up a lined landfill onsite at Gallatin, which would put the project cost at $550 million. TVA says it’s also considering offsite landfill options, which would bump the price tag up to $2 billion and likely change the completion date.

TVA added that the size of the project would make it impossible to comply with a federal coal ash rule requiring the digging and disposal to be complete within 15 years.

At the facility about 40 miles from Nashville, it would take 15 years just to excavate the coal ash pit that has been abandoned since 1970 and the coal ash ponds still in use, TVA’s court filing states. TVA also anticipates years of permitting and reviews.

Among other steps, the timeline also includes building a facility to remove water from coal ash storage and new wastewater process ponds, which were already planned, Brooks said.

Beth Alexander, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center who filed the lawsuit in 2015 against TVA for its coal ash disposal method at Gallatin, said

Wednesday that TVA’s extended timeline for the coal ash removal appears exaggerated.

“Based on the work of other utilities removing coal ash from unlined to lined landfills, it would appear that TVA has vastly overestimated both the time and the expense that will be required to accomplish what the Court has ordered,” she said.

TVA, which powers 9 million customers in parts of seven Southern states, says it’s investing billions of dollars in safer ways to store coal ash and other waste from burning coal across its operations.

That includes converting all of its wet coal ash storage to dry storage, a decision made after a 2008 coal ash disaster at TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee. More than 5 million cubic yards of sludge from the plant spilled into the Emory and Clinch rivers that year, destroying homes in a nearby waterfront community.

The court order requires removing almost three times that amount of coal ash at the Gallatin plant.

TVA has said that keeping the ash where it is and covering it with a cap would cost about $230 million and may be safer and more environmentally friendly.

The Southern Environmental Law Center said that option does nothing to stop groundwater pollution.

A related case brought by Tennessee environmental officials against TVA over the Gallatin facility’s pollution is ongoing in federal court.

TVA has balked at removing coal ash from ponds it used at a handful of its coal-fired power plants. But TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said “the geology under the Gallatin enclosure is significantly different than TVA’s five other wet impoundments,” which are either active or in the closure process.

“We are currently working with TDEC under an order from the Commissioner to fully evaluate each of our Tennessee coal combustion residual enclosures, which will allow for data-driven decisions relative to the operation or closure of these facilities,” Hopson said.