Coal news and updates

TVA to shutter Ala. coal unit, sell Kingston land

TVA will close - by October at the latest - the last remaining coal-fired power unit of the Widows Creek Fossil Plant in northern Alabama, CEO and President Bill Johnson told TVA board members on Thursday.

Seven other units at Widows Creek have already been taken out of operation. The plant, which was started in 1950 and completed in 1965, is on the Tennessee River at the Guntersville Reservoir.

The TVA board met Thursday morning in Huntsville, Ala.

New federal environmental rules regarding coal ash storage will impact Widows Creek, according to TVA. The rules stem in part from the massive December 2008 coal ash spill at the Kingston plant. Liquid coal ash that had been stored on-site poured into the surrounding countryside and Emory River when a storage cell failed.

TVA has spent an estimated $1.2 billion cleaning up since the spill. Coal ash is left over from burning coal to power a power plant.

"The ash pond for the remaining operating unit will reach capacity as early as next spring," Johnson told board members, according to a TVA release. "As a result, we will need to set a retirement date for the final unit earlier than we had planned."

On Thursday, TVA board members also approved the sale of properties on almost 77 acres on Emory River Road in Kingston.

TVA acquired the parcels after the December 2008 ash spill as it began reclamation on site, Johnson said Sunday during an appearance on WBIR's "Inside Tennessee." The properties have been deemed "not power plant necessary," Johnson said.

source: http://www.wbir.com