Coal news and updates

Duke lays out plan to remove Upstate coal ash

Within the next two weeks, Duke Energy plans to start removing coal ash from the company’s W.S. Lee Steam Station near Williamston, and just the early phase of the work is expected to cost $75 million.

The company has been under scrutiny regarding how it handles coal ash since February 2014 when a spill from its plant in Eden, North Carolina, coated 70 miles of the Dan River. The spill put 39,000 tons of coal ash and 27 million gallons of ash slurry into the river. It was one of the largest spills in United States history.

Duke Energy held an informational session Thursday at Williamston Town Hall to give residents an overview how the company will remove coal ash from the plant property, and offered bus tours so people could ride out to the site and see the ash basins. The community meeting was aimed at residents who live within 2 miles of the plant and those who live along the coal ash haul routes between the plant and Interstate 85. The company sent out at least 4,000 letters about the gathering. Several hundred people attended the informal meeting. Most of them looked at maps of the haul routes, rode a bus, and partook of the cookies and bottled water that the company offered at town hall. Some of the residents said they didn’t know what coal ash was, and they wanted to make sure their families would be safe.

“I want to find out what’s going on,” said Williamston resident James Roy McCuen. “I remember when this station was built in the 1950s and I had a couple of cousins who worked there. I don’t know much about coal ash, but I’m worried that it’s poison.”

Coal ash is the waste left when coal is burned. The ash contains toxic chemicals such as arsenic and mercury. As part of an agreement with South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Duke Energy filed an ash removal plan and schedule in 2014.

At the Lee Steam Station, coal ash is stored near the banks of the Saluda River. Duke Energy has contracted with Houston-based Waste Management Inc. to excavate 1.4 million tons of ash from two areas of the site. The work is expected to involve 125 to 150 truck trips a day, and the project will last two to three years, according to officials from both companies. The removed ash will be hauled to a fully lined landfill in Homer, Georgia. Fifty trucks will be dedicated for the project, and each truck can haul about 22.5 tons of coal ash, said Dale Davis, Waste Management’s strategic business director for electric utility services.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Erin Culbert said her company is still evaluating how to remove the more than 2 million tons of ash that will remain once the first phase of work is complete. A decision on how to remove the majority of the ash is still six months to a year away, she said. Duke Energy hopes to create an on-site landfill at the Lee plant to handle the rest of the ash, but has not determined yet if that is a feasible option, or how much it would cost.

“Duke Energy is committed to removing the coal ash,” Culbert said. “And this is a project that deserves good care.”

The coal ash will be hauled in trucks that are outfitted with tightfitting tarps, equipment that prevents leaks, cameras and GPS equipment, Davis said.

“If a driver deviates from one of the approved routes, a GPS will let us know within two minutes,” Davis said.

Sara Phillips, who owns property near the Lee plant, said she believes Duke Energy is taking appropriate measures to safely remove the coal ash.

“It seems like they are trying really hard to do it right,” she said. “I’m impressed with what I’ve heard and I’m not frightened.”

The W.S. Lee Steam Station began operating in 1951. It officially retired as a coal plant last year. One of the units is being converted to burn natural gas. A separate, 750-megawatt natural gas combined-cycle plant will be built at the site, with construction expected to ramp up later this year.

Frank Holleman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, negotiated with Duke Energy as to how it would handle coal ash in South Carolina. He represented Upstate Forever and Save our Saluda.

“This plan for the Lee site is a tremendous improvement over the current situation,” Holleman said in an interview Thursday night. “Our goal has always been to get this coal ash into lined, dry storage and away from the river.”

source: http://www.independentmail.com