Second TVA coal ash pond ruptures

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Second TVA coal ash pond ruptures
By ANNE PAINE

Alabama environmental officials were on their way as of 10:15 a.m. Central Time to an spill at TVA's Widows Creek coal-fired power plant in northeastern Alabama. TVA confirmed an ash-related spill at a second TVA plant, this time at its Widows Creek plant in northeastern Alabama. “I had heard that that’s the case,” confirmed Barbara Martocci, TVA spokesman who was at the Kingston plant in Tennessee. Scott Hughes, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management said, “The only thing we’ve got right now is that there was a release from a gypsum treatment operation.”

“We do understand that some of the material has reached Widows Creek.” The creek from which TVA’s coal burning plant gets its name, crosses the plant property. Gypsum is one of the byproducts when special filters capture and treat ash. It can be sold for use in wallboard, but markets have been slow and it like more standard ash can build up in waste ponds.

“We’re in the process of gathering more info and getting a full report." Kingston is the scene of a TVA ash pond that ruptured: Early on the morning of Dec. 22, more than a billion gallons of sludge flowed out of the pond, damaging a dozen homes and creating environmental havoc along the Emory River.

The Widows Creek Fossil Plant is located on Guntersville Reservoir on the Tennessee River. It has eight coal-fired units and was completed in 1965. The plant consumes about 10,000 tons of coal a day. The ash from that coal was in the pond that broke there.