As with many types of potentially hazardous waste, regulations continue to change and evolve as new information comes in about the long-term impact of pollution. This makes it difficult to guess what new rules and regulations may apply to existing storage or treatment pits in the future. While some laws may only apply to new construction, these particular waste pits are often subjected to all changes. This can create unexpected costs long after a power plant is closed, or a facility has ceased operations. A brief review of some of the most recent changes to laws and regulations regarding coal ash residue containment can help site operators try to predict and plan for changes in the future.
Early Attempts with the Clean Water Act
The first attempts to clean up environmental damage from waste products like coal ash began in the 1970s with the Clean Water Act from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These wide-reaching laws allowed the EPA to fine and mandate remediation for any major spill or contamination that affects the waters of the United States. This included coal ash, but it wasn’t focused on this type of waste in particular. Everything from paint to automotive processing residues was included in the widespread actions of the EPA trying to reduce pollution in lakes, rivers, and bays across the country. This meant that most coal ash issues that occurred prior to 2008 were only dealt with after damage occurred, and there was only a general program designed to identify all kinds of pollution risks.
The 2008 TVA Plant Failure in Kingston, TN
The first event to change how the EPA approached coal ash regulations on a federal level occurred in December of 2008 in Kingston, TN. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal fired power plant located in the town experienced a failure of the impoundment wall of one coal ash holding cell. Over one billion gallons of active ash slurry escaped the containment system, spreading the contamination over 300 acres of surrounding land. Homes, businesses, and multiple rivers and streams were all contaminated and polluted by the spill. The EPA took action to begin inspecting and assessing these types of coal ash residue impoundments in particular to see what kind of condition they were in. The site was designated as a Superfund site, resulting in expensive remediation costs and negative attention for the coal power industry as a whole.
NC’s 2014 Coal Ash Incident
Over the next few years, the EPA found 152 of the more than 500 coal ash impoundments poor in condition but none were unsatisfactory. From 2010 to 2014, the agency worked on developing the Disposal of Coal Combustion Residuals from Electric Utilities rule, known as the CCR Rule. Yet due to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the EPA was limited in its ability to regulate coal ash waste products no matter how it acted. This new series of regulations for the waste was in the comment period when in February of 2014 the third worst spill of coal ash slurry occurred in North Carolina. 39,000 tons of slurry spread into the Dan River and spread through the surrounding area. This increased the EPA’s interest in managing coal ash storage, so the Water Infrastructure for Improvements to the Nation (WIIN) Act was signed into law in 2016 to authorize states to regulate what the EPA couldn’t at the federal level.
What’s Required Now?
Today’s regulations from the EPA and state agencies are at varying levels of strictness. Some states are at their highest level of regulation on coal ash storage, while others have relaxed rules recently to follow along with the rollback of the WIIN Act and the EPA’s ability to act through the Clean Water Act. As of 2021, many regulations for coal ash storage in particular are still unclear due to active legal challenges to current laws. It’s best to check each week with both state agencies and EPA regulations to see how the laws are rapidly changing and to understand when new laws are finalized and coming into effect.
Changing regulations shouldn’t keep a coal fired power plant from staying on top of ash residue storage. Designing containment around reliable and long-lasting flexible liners from BTL Liners is the key to meeting these rules both now and later. Our products are designed to last for decades, allowing you to keep up with all the changes to regulations no matter what’s in the future. Coal ash storage pits and impoundments can last for years when built right from the start, but they require impermeable and high-quality liners to achieve those goals.
