2008 Woodie Awards
Landfills growing as coal plants try for cleaner air
By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: State
CONESVILLE, Ohio (AP) - The state has approved two landfills and is considering another four to bury millions of tons of ash and sludge produced at coal-fired power plants.
When Ohio's coal-based power plants updated their environmental safeguards to comply with federal rules, they reduced pollution coming from smokestacks. But they also kept more pollution on the ground so, instead of billowing into the air, more of the waster is carted away from the plants in dump trucks.
"It's obviously another problem with coal," said Sandy Buchanan, director of Ohio Citizen Action and critic of American Electric Power's plans for a new coal plant in Meigs County in southeast Ohio.
"You end up with all this ash and sludge with coal that you don't have with other kinds of power."
Near AEP's existing plant in eastern Ohio's Conesville, a convoy of dump trucks moves the black ash and dried gray sludge to a new landfill. Columbus-based AEP, FirstEnergy and other Ohio utilities have built similar landfills to accommodate these millions of tons of sludge and ash.
"It's part of the whole process. You have the scrubber on one end and a landfill on the other," said Mark Durbin, a FirstEnergy spokesman.
The new landfills are lined with synthetic materials and clay to keep the waste from groundwater. Companies still monitor the groundwater for toxic metals that can be in the waste and might seep into the water supply.
The state already has approved plans to build two landfills and is considering at least four more. Near FirstEnergy's plant in Jefferson County in eastern Ohio, the state Environmental Protection Agency approved a site that would take as much as 1.6 million tons of sludge each year.
"It has to go somewhere," Durbin said.
A 2005 rule from the U.S. EPA required a 57 percent cut in sulfur dioxide emissions and a 61 percent cut in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2015.
When Ohio's coal-based power plants updated their environmental safeguards to comply with federal rules, they reduced pollution coming from smokestacks. But they also kept more pollution on the ground so, instead of billowing into the air, more of the waster is carted away from the plants in dump trucks.
"It's obviously another problem with coal," said Sandy Buchanan, director of Ohio Citizen Action and critic of American Electric Power's plans for a new coal plant in Meigs County in southeast Ohio.
"You end up with all this ash and sludge with coal that you don't have with other kinds of power."
Near AEP's existing plant in eastern Ohio's Conesville, a convoy of dump trucks moves the black ash and dried gray sludge to a new landfill. Columbus-based AEP, FirstEnergy and other Ohio utilities have built similar landfills to accommodate these millions of tons of sludge and ash.
"It's part of the whole process. You have the scrubber on one end and a landfill on the other," said Mark Durbin, a FirstEnergy spokesman.
The new landfills are lined with synthetic materials and clay to keep the waste from groundwater. Companies still monitor the groundwater for toxic metals that can be in the waste and might seep into the water supply.
The state already has approved plans to build two landfills and is considering at least four more. Near FirstEnergy's plant in Jefferson County in eastern Ohio, the state Environmental Protection Agency approved a site that would take as much as 1.6 million tons of sludge each year.
"It has to go somewhere," Durbin said.
A 2005 rule from the U.S. EPA required a 57 percent cut in sulfur dioxide emissions and a 61 percent cut in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2015.
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