The Tennessee state legislature may be very close to the ratification of a new bill to require the installation of geosynthetic liners in all new or future expansions to coal ash storage facilities.
Kingston, Tennessee, readers will recall, was the site of a massive coal ash pond breach in December 2008. That facility’s failure released 5.4 million cubic yards of contaminated ash across 275 acres. The estimated cleanup cost, announced in mid-February, will be $525-$825 million.
Tennessee’s House of Representatives has signed off on the bill (SB1559), but changes in the bill’s language means it must revert to the state senate for an approval vote or further amendments.
Tom Humphrey, Nashville bureau chief for the Knoxville News Sentinel, reports that some legislators have argued over the necessity of liners, in part due to questions of whether a liner could have prevented failure of the Kingston pond.
A liner alone may not have been enough, given the engineering of the walls of the facility. But one must also recall that among the many proposals for updating the facility in 2003, the most modern designed called for $25 million, only $5 million of which was for liner. The rest was to improve the overall site’s engineering.
The facility owner, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), opted for a much lower-cost solution (less than $1 million).
Liners have clearly had a very beneficial impact on waste management. Geosynthetic barrier systems are required for landfills in the United States. In the past few infrastructure “report cards” from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American waste management industry has stood above all other sectors. Stringent regulations, construction quality assurance (CQA), and highly engineered barrier and reinforcement materials have been the difference maker.
IS A FEDERAL REQUIREMENT COMING?
Federal regulation may be forthcoming too. The Roseville, Minnesota-based Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA) held its annual Lobby Day in Washington DC earlier this year and met with legislators, staff aids, and other policy influencers to discuss liner technologies.
Given the scope of the environmental cleanup in Tennessee, other states are keen to prevent such a thing from occurring within their borders. Federal mandate may be the easiest solution.
Just as municipal solid waste cell construction has been spurred by federal regulation that filters out to state environmental agencies and help establish the minimum controls on design and containment materials, so it may be with coal ash storage. And soon.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Tom Humphreys 23 April 2009 blog post
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/humphrey/2009/04/house-revises-coal-ash-bill-th.html
Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA)
http://www.gmanow.com
Chris Kelsey is the editorial director for geosynthetica.net. He may be reached at chris@geosynthetica.net.
