[Rhodes22-list] Potash Spill at Kingston TVA Plant

Wed Dec 31 12:20:19 EST 2008

Update - this just came in on PowerNews (an e-mail newsletter for
power generation I subscribe to) about the spill.  The article uses
the correct term - it's fly ash.  Fly ash is used to make concrete
lighter and is also sometimes used as a soil binder (we don't, not
because it doesn't work, we just don't have any experience with it).
Like any soil amendment, if over used it defeats the purpose.  Just
guessing here but I'd put $100 that a contractor tried to save some
money on trucking in clay. It could just be bad engineering.  On the
other hand, remember this, they're called CON tractors not GOOD
tractors for a reason.  Hope they had good insurance.

Brad

--------------------

TVA Seeks to Control Damage from Massive Coal Ash Flood

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has vowed to clean up the 5.4
million cubic yards of wet coal ash—enough to flood more than 3,000
acres one foot deep—that spilled last week when the earthen retaining
wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west
of Knoxville, failed.

That reservoir, one of three containment areas at the 1,700-MW
Kingston plant in Harriman, Tenn., was 40 acres wide and said to hold
2.2 million pounds of fly ash and bottom ash—decades worth of the
coal-fired power plant's by-product, according to The New York Times.
The broken dike is said to have left 4 or 5 feet of water and mud over
250 to 400 acres of rural land. Authorities said no one was seriously
injured or hospitalized.

Fly ash (lightweight ash) and bottom ash (heavier coarse residue) are
both pumped to ash ponds. Once the ash settles in the ash pond, the
ash is pumped to "dredge cells"—engineered and permitted facilities
that are surrounded by dikes constructed using compacted ash, and
which incorporate engineered drain systems, water runoff controls, and
monitoring systems. The water flows into a settling pond.

On Dec. 22—the day the spill occurred—ash in the Kingston dredge cell
storage areas reached heights up to 55 feet above water level in the
ash pond prior to failure, but it was well within permit limits. A TVA
spokesman suggested that heavy rains and freezing temperatures could
have been to blame for the failure. Overnight temperatures for the
region had dropped to 14F, and Harriman had already received 4.9
inches of rainfall—compared to the 2.8 inches of rainfall typical for
the month of December.

The TVA said that it conducted comprehensive inspections of its ash
containment areas, including daily visual inspections, quarterly solid
waste and dike inspections, and annual detailed inspections of the
ash-handling and storage dikes.

The most recent annual inspection was concluded in October 2008.
Although this inspection's formal report is not complete, a
preliminary report shows that a "wet spot" was found, indicating a
minor leaking issue. In a prior inspection (PDF), which concluded on
Dec. 4, 2007, an inspector had recommended that the TVA should "repair
any dikes showing signs of erosion on the pond side." It is unclear
whether the utility made those repairs.

The TVA said no significant problems otherwise suggested that the
dikes were unstable and on the brink of failure.

The TVA said in a recent advisory that seven of the nine units at
Kingston had been shut down, along with several other TVA fossil
units, due to reduced demand for electricity as mild weather remains
in the Tennessee Valley.

The Kingston Fossil Plant, located at the confluence of the Emory and
Clinch Rivers near Kingston, Tenn., is one of TVA's larger fossil
plants. The plant's construction began in 1951 and was completed in
1955.

In 2003 and 2006, the TVA reported that the dike at Kingston
experienced smaller, localized seepage that released some ash from one
of the dredge cells. After each incident, TVA made changes and repairs
to improve the condition of the dike. The utility also noted that
these problems were in an area of the dike southwest of the suspected
location of the current failure.

Experts are calling the coal ash spill the largest environmental
disaster of its kind in the U.S. owing to the toxic nature of fly ash.
A 2007 inventory filed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
and uncovered by The New York Times suggested that in one year, the
plant's by-products included 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds
of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium, and
140,000 pounds of manganese.

But in a recent statement, the TVA said that preliminary environmental
data of the ash release showed no indication of acute health effects
resulting from contact with the coal ash material—though it
discouraged direct contact with it.

The TVA also said that while sampling in the vicinity of the Kingston
water plant and of the water being served by Kingston showed no
violations of drinking water standards, samples taken closer to the
ash release did "slightly" exceed drinking water standards for several
heavy metals, including arsenic.

Fly ash is the ash captured in the stack of a power plant and is a
very fine, powdery material. As wet fly ash sediments dried out, the
TVA was concerned that dust would become an issue for area residents.
Response officials are currently evaluating the potential for health
effects associated with the dust, and both the EPA and TVA have begun
monitoring for levels of fly ash in the air.

"In the meantime, it is suggested that people avoid activities that
generate dust. The dust may be irritating to the skin and nasal
passages, especially to those who have conditions affecting their
breathing, such as asthma or other respiratory illnesses," the utility
said.

Sources: TVA, EPA, The New York Times

On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 9:06 AM, brad haslett <flybrad at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Wally,
>
> Sounds like they had the right material available.  It's very easy to get in a hurry, to do it right you can only add about 6" at a time and then only when the moisture content is right. Even when built correctly, mother nature can wreak havoc on earthen dams, just ask New Orleans.  We've built about dozen small ponds in the last three years and walked away from a couple of jobs because the dam height requirements were bigger than our tolerance for risk. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a policy change coming for a double containment system further down the pike, ala Exxon Valdez double hulled ships.  It's a bit late now though.
>
> Brad
>
> --- On Wed, 12/31/08, TN Rhodey <tnrhodey at gmail.com> wrote:
> From: TN Rhodey <tnrhodey at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Potash Spill at Kingston TVA Plant
> To: "The Rhodes 22 Email List" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 8:44 AM
>
> Brad - East TN is red clay and rock. I built a screened in porch last summer
> and of course it rained the day after I dug the holes for footers. The clay
> holes filled and stayed filled until I emptied. Solid red clay! I guess it
> could be worse. Watts Bar Nuke Plant is around 20 miles down river.
>
> This is the first Potash spill of this magnitude. There was one in PA (I
> think) but it was much smaller. This is a real mess and clean up will be
> costly.
>
> It saddens me greatly to see my lake polluted like this. The near by area is
> well noted for the large Blue Heron rookeries. There are hundreds of nesting
> Blue Herons, Green herons, Ospreys and King Fishers in the area. The area is
> also home to 2 long term nesting and breeding Bald Eagle families. Luckily
> most of these birds are gone for the winter. The river upstream is well
> known for trout, otter, and beaver. I feel like the crying Indian in the old
> 60s anti-litter commercial.
>
> On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 9:04 AM, brad haslett <flybrad at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Wally,
>>
>> That's a nasty ash gap in that dam.  What kind of soil do you have
> there?
>> Clay content?  I built two ponds in Middle Tn that all the
> "experts"
>> including my neighbor with a Vanderbilt civil engineering degree, said
> would
>> never hold water because of the underlying limestone layer and high sand
>> content in the soil.  We disked in soda ash (learned that trick from a
>> farmer) and then ran over it with a vibratory drum sheepsfoot roller -
>> worked like a charm. Ironically, fly ash is also sold as a soil binder as
>> well as a binder in concrete.  We've built a number of ponds in MS
> (not my
>> brother's primary area of expertise) and went with what we knew worked
> from
>> previous experience - soda ash  if you can't get enough clay and
>> lots-o-compaction.  It will be interesting to see what methods and
> materials
>> the TVA used. I just got off the phone with Gary from our morning brief
> and
>> his quick-and-dirty analysis was, "under engineered or over filled,
> or both,
>> glad
>>  we didn't build it!"
>>
>> Someone's going to take a bullet! I hope it's the TVA but not if
> my
>> electric bill goes up.
>>
>> Brad
>> --- On Wed, 12/31/08, TN Rhodey <tnrhodey at gmail.com> wrote:
>> From: TN Rhodey <tnrhodey at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Potash Spill at Kingston TVA Plant
>> To: "The Rhodes 22 Email List"
> <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 7:03 AM
>>
>> They keep upping the numbers. Latest link with photos and video of the
>> area-
>> http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/dec/31/toxic-details-released/
>>
>> from the article ....:On Tuesday, Tennessee Valley Authority spokeswoman
>> B.J. Gatten said that prior to the spill there were 9.4 million cubic
> yards
>> of material in the "dredge cell," and that after the spill, 4
> million
>> cubic
>> yards remained at the site.
>> In a toxic release inventory posted on its Web site, the TVA said releases
>> into the Kingston dredge cells included the following during 2007:
>>
>> -- More than 1.4 million pounds of barium compounds.
>>
>> -- More than 49,000 pounds of lead compounds.
>>
>> -- More than 142,000 pounds of manganese compounds.
>>
>> -- More than 44,000 pounds of arsenic compounds.
>>
>>
>>
>> The above is not what was spilled but rather the amount of waste generated
>> in 07. Locals will not trust TVA to test water so TVA is going to pay
> local
>> utilities to check water quality. The water intake is just a few miles
> down
>> river. If the sludge dries some of this can become air borne.
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:56 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> > Bill,
>> >
>> > Here's the latest from the politicians in the area involved -
> total
>> silence
>> > -
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
> http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/archives/2008/12/elected_officia_2.shtml
>> >
>> > I've been out of the news loop on this event except my brother
> follows
>> > these things closely from an engineering point of view.  When we do
>> > site work subject to compaction tests, he knows better than all the
>> > scientific methods combined whether something is compacted enough by
>> > seeing if the machine leaves a track.  It will be interesting to see
>> > what construction methods were used and what engineering data was
>> > accepted.
>> >
>> > As Gary always says, "you can't beat a man at his own
>> craft".
>> > Someone's going to take a bullet on this one - the political
> types are
>> > ducking for cover.
>> >
>> > Brad
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 10:26 AM, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com>
>> wrote:
>> > > Wally,
>> > >
>> > > The reports outside TVA country have downplayed the seriousness
> of
>> this
>> > > event, and the (until now) hidden fact that coal waste disposal
> is as
>> > > much a problem as nuclear waste disposal.  Any sites you could
> point
>> me
>> > > to would be appreciated.
>> > >
>> > > Bill Effros
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > TN Rhodey wrote:
>> > >> I am sure you all have heard about the Potash overflow in
>> Kingston TN.
>> > >> Kingston is 20 miles west of my home. My boat is slipped
> another
>> 20
>> > miles
>> > >> down river from the spill. We cruised near the area in my
> buddies
>> Boston
>> > >> Whaler. What a freaking mess!!!
>> > >>
>> > >> Wally
>> > >> __________________________________________________
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