Coal ash landfill, water pollution, and nuisance dust top list of concerns
Marissa, Il. – At an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency public hearing in Marissa on Thursday, local residents and environmental advocates called on the Agency to deny the permit to discharge water pollution for the Prairie State coal fired power plant in Washington County.
Nearly 50 local residents packed into the Marissa Township building to learn about the draft water permit, and voice their concerns. Several neighbors of the plant testified that pollution from the plant was already impacting them.
“I disagree with Prairie State that the plant is having no effect on surrounding properties,” said Ramona Vonderhaar, who lives downstream of the power plant. “The release of additional water into area streams from the plant has already led to blockages and flooding on our property, and the dust and the noise have been serious issues as well.”
Several commenters worried that reusing runoff from the adjacent Lively Grove mine in the cooling towers would worsen the mercury levels being sent downstream.
Cindy Skrukrud, Clean Water Advocate with the Illinois Sierra Club questioned whether any increases in mercury runoff would appear in the monitoring reports.
“With respect to mercury, the permit only requires monitoring two times a year, which seems awfully infrequent to me,” Skrukrud said.
“How can you say there is not going to be pollution from coal ash dust blowing off the landfill?” Triefenbach asked the agency. “It’s only been in use for a few months and already a 5 mph wind can blow coal ash more than a quarter of a mile away. I’ve called the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency about this and no one calls me back.”
“We’re already showing signs of spots on windshields of cars and trucks, and there have been complaints of changing colors of roofs,” said area resident and farmer Larry Wegner. “We’ve just started a couple of months, where’s it going to be a couple of years from now?”
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency staff emphasized that they believe the coal ash land fill currently under construction – which will eventually cover over 750 acres and reach approximately 290-ft. high – is exempt from water permitting requirements because it is not designed to discharge.
However, several commenters challenged this, pointing out that Prairie State had not demonstrated that it would be able to continually reuse leachate from the coal ash landfill for the life of the plant without needing to discharge.
“Considering Prairie State’s own estimates that the capped landfill will generate up to 71,000 gallons per day of coal ash leachate, it is difficult to understand how the Agency can accept that over the 30 year life of the ash landfill that it will never need to discharge any water,” said Traci Barkley, a watershed scientist with Prairie Rivers Network.
Area resident Dennis Galle concurred, pointing out that the landfill’s location atop two miles of Mud Creek tributary streams and wetlands raised long term concerns about the landfill’s stability.
“In 2011, the County Line Road was impassable for weeks due to flooding from the creek,” Galle said. “I don’t see how the landfill and the leachate pond will be able to hold all that water.”
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The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) sets limits on the amount of pollution a power plant can discharge in its wastewater. Discharges must be permitted, and these permits must be re-issued every 5 years, at which time the public can provide comments on any proposed changes in the permit. The draft permit proposed by the Illinois EPA has been modified to include discharge of two new wastestreams to area streams.
Neighbors of the power plant and clean water proponents are urging the Illinois EPA not to issue a modified version of the mine’s water pollution discharge permit due to concerns about new sources of pollution at the plant. These include:
- A new 750-acre, 290-f00t-tall coal ash landfill, which the Illinois EPA does not consider for additional water pollution in the draft permit. Coal ash contains elevated levels of harmful heavy metals and salts, and can be damaging to human health and the environment
- The transfer of polluted wastewater and runoff from the Lively Grove Mine to the power plant’s cooling towers where pollutants will be concentrated and ultimately discharged in adjacent streams
Additionally, the new coal ash landfill – which is currently under construction – would unnecessarily destroy nearly two miles of tributaries to Mud Creek and several acres of wetlands. The close proximity of the coal ash landfill is also a major concern to area residents, who rely on shallow groundwater resources for domestic and agricultural uses.
Written comments can be submitted electronically to the Illinois EPA by February 18th, 2013 at epa.publichearingcom@illinois.gov, and should specify Prairie State Generating Company NPDES or IL0076996 in the subject line. Comments can also be sent to:
Hearing Officer Dean Studer
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
1021 North Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, IL 62794-9276
The notice of public hearing and draft NPDES permit are posted on the Illinois EPA’s website below:
- http://www.epa.state.il.us/public-notices/2012/prairie-state-generating/hearing-notice.pdf
- http://www.epa.state.il.us/public-notices/2012/prairie-state-generating/index.pdf
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For more coverage, see the January 18th, 2013 article in the Centralia Sentinel (pdf).
