Millions of tons of coal ash are buried underground in Colorado, seeping toxic chemicals into groundwater

BOULDER When Xcel Vitality stopped burning coal at its Valmont Power Station in it left million tons of toxic coal ash on the property and now that waste is leaking hazardous metals into groundwater threatening nearby drinking-water wells Xcel plans to scoop the majority of the coal ash from a landfill at the site and turn it into an ingredient in concrete to be sold in metro Denver The project awaits approval from the Colorado Department of Community Strength and Circumstances The utility company expects to spend million over the next to years to remove ash and treat contaminated groundwater mentioned Michelle Aguayo an Xcel spokeswoman Personnel at Boulder County Masses Medical are on board with the coal-ash cleanup saying that recycling hazardous waste into a useful product is a proven remedy It would rid the site of a toxic substance and prevent anyone from trucking it to another area That s one reason we like this project we re not just putting this project on someone else Another reason we like it is it will be a net greenhouse gas reduction declared Bill Hayes the county strength department s air quality campaign director We aren t trucking it nationally We are creating something that will be used locally and won t have to be trucked in from thousands of miles Boulder County Residents Robustness supports the project he reported The beneficial use project will have global impacts But there will be particular menace with it Xcel will be the first utility company in Colorado to initiate such a large-scale coal-ash cleanup after lithium and selenium leaked into groundwater and seeped toward wells used for drinking water on nearby properties But there are millions of tons of coal ash in other landfills and ponds around Colorado and almost all of those sites are leaching pollutants into groundwater Over the years general reporting of coal-ash contamination has been inconsistent because there was no regulation of the waste before Even after that utility companies were only required to assessment monitoring results from landfills that were still in use and those documents can be hard to find and complex to understand Then last year the Biden administration expanded those reporting requirements to all waste disposal sites although nothing has yet resulted from that rule change In two environmental organizations compiled a list of coal-ash waste sites across the United States using Environmental Protection Agency reports and their research identified known coal ash locations in Colorado Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project estimated that over the decades Colorado power plants created more than million tons of ash per year that went into landfills and retention ponds according to their -page analysis The assessment placed three of Colorado s coal-ash waste sites among the majority contaminated sites in the United States While Xcel has a plan to remove coal ash at the old Valmont station environmentalists say it is unlikely that the greater part utility companies will clean their sites unless forced by federal or state regulators or if sued by impacted communities Utility companies have a track record of doing the minimum amount required under the EPA s Coal Combustion Residuals rules revealed Abel Russ senior counsel with the Environmental Integrity Project They find techniques to formally comply with the rule but not do much with cleanup because it s expensive and they don t want to spend the money Russ noted Xcel s cleanup project at Valmont comes as the Trump administration shows little appetite for enforcing existing coal-ash disposal rules as the president and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin push their Powering the Great American Comeback agenda which prioritizes coal as a leading source of ability in the country On Thursday a Republican-controlled House environmental subcommittee held a hearing to review coal-ash regulations and to discuss whether or not leadership red tape and bureaucracy can stifle innovation surrounding the use of coal ash according to an announcement of the hearing Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin testifies before the House Committee on Ability and Commerce Subcommittee on Surroundings in the Rayburn House Office Building on May in Washington D C Photo by Kevin Dietsch Getty Images In Colorado utility companies are phasing out coal-burning power plants as the state strives to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and pivot toward renewable potency such as wind and solar Those companies will continue to produce coal ash until that happens Meanwhile the retention ponds and landfills that have held the ash for decades are not going away For example Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association s ash disposal facility near its Nucla Station in Montrose County received waste from until when the coal plant was retired The company broadcasted last year that million tons of coal ash are in a landfill and that the electric cooperative continues maintenance at the waste site Last year Tri-State disclosed it had taken policies to prevent erosion including adding riprap along the perimeter and building a -foot-tall berm according to the company s inspection assessment The Valmont Power Station on North rd Street in Boulder operated as a coal-fired electricity generation station for almost a century until it was converted to a natural-gas-powered station in September During that time Xcel dumped its coal ash also known as coal combustion residuals into three ponds and a landfill In Xcel s groundwater monitoring detected lithium and selenium leaching from a -acre landfill that was in operation from until That led the company to come up with a plan to remove the ash from the site and stop the leaks But it s been a long process Xcel submitted its engineering and design plan earlier this year to explain how the cleanup will work That plan is still under review by the state wellbeing department s Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division and will be subject to constituents comment once preliminary approval is given The company also must apply for a permit to emit pollutants into the air during the cement-making project and that must also be approved by the state Work cannot start until those approvals have been given Still Xcel says it will begin in A national issue Nationally billion tons of coal ash are estimated to have been created by coal-powered electricity plants since the late s explained Lisa Evans senior counsel with Earthjustice a nonprofit environmental law group Coal ash is the second-largest industrial waste stream in the country accounting for million tons pouring into landfills and retention ponds every year Earthjustice research uncovered If you ask if there s a big concern with coal ash in the U S the answer is yes because coal ash was mismanaged for decades Evans explained Hazardous chemicals exposed in coal ash include arsenic boron cobalt chromium lead lithium radium and selenium Those chemicals are known to cause an increased jeopardy of various cancers heart and thyroid infection respiratory illnesses and neurological problems Lithium is a naturally occurring metal and has various commercial uses including as a material used in batteries The EPA has placed lithium on a list of priority contaminants in drinking water but has not established regulations on how much is an acceptable minimum level Lithium has been known to cause renal and neurological problems in people Selenium is also a naturally occurring metal and has useful purposes including as an essential nutrient at low levels The EPA has established a maximum level for that metal which can damage the liver kidneys nervous system and circulatory system and cause hair loss Coal-ash disposal in the United States was unregulated until after the December Kingston TVA coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee In that catastrophe a dike used to contain coal ash broke near the Tennessee Valley Authority s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County dumping million cubic yards of toxic coal ash into nearby water including the Emory and Clinch rivers and contaminating more than acres of land It took more than six years to clean the mess from rivers and streams and private property Hundreds of workers were sickened and dozens died from exposure to arsenic lead mercury and radium that was in the coal ash Fly ash is loaded into plastic-lined rail cars at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant on Thursday Dec in Kingston Tennessee AP Photo Wade Payne That was just so dramatic that it focused everyone s attention on it It reminded everyone that it s a huge waste stream Russ mentioned When Americans first started burning coal to provide electricity no one thought about the ash byproduct left over after the coal burned The ash was dumped in unlined lagoons and landfills without much thought It s the sheer volume of it and the concentration of heavy metals in it Russ mentioned They didn t wrap their heads around it until it was too late The EPA established the first rules for coal-ash management in in the wake of the Kingston tragedy The rules addressed the risks associated with coal-ash disposal including leaks into groundwater dust blowing into the air and failures of impediments around landfills The federal regime also began requiring record-keeping and reporting at advancing coal-ash landfills across the country and the regulations allowed for the beneficial use of coal ash which is what Xcel is planning for the Valmont Power Station in Boulder Those rules only applied to proceeding landfills and excluded chosen of the oldest coal-ash ponds and landfills in the country In the EPA under President Joe Biden tightened rules governing those older ponds and landfills that required monitoring for pollutants and cleanup However the Trump administration has already signaled that it will not prioritize coal-ash enforcement Evans noted In March Zeldin informed a plan to shift coal-ash regulation to the states with EPA sponsorship and pledged to change the rules on compliance deadlines by the end of this year That means there will be uneven enforcement across the country with coal-friendly states such as Wyoming and North Dakota becoming lax while other states including Colorado tackle the challenge Evans explained Coal ash is like running on a treadmill We gain ground and lose ground Evans disclosed We made progress with Obama and Trump tried to rescind it but ended up just delaying Then we got a new rule with President Biden to fill the gaps And now the Trump administration wants to undo it A Colorado obstacle There are known locations in Colorado where coal ash has been dumped and those sites include coal-ash ponds and landfills according to a database maintained by Earthjustice There could be other unknown sites where coal ash was stored long before any regulations existed the environmental group says Those sites are on the grounds of former or current coal-burning power plants or nearby landfills and are the responsibility of the utility companies that own them It s unclear exactly how much coal ash is buried in the ground in Colorado because of incomplete reporting Click to enlarge Xcel is responsible for seven of the coal-ash waste sites in the state the former Arapahoe Generation Station in Denver the former Cameo Generation Station in Mesa County the Cherokee Generation Station in Denver the Comanche Generation Station in Pueblo the Hayden Generation Station in Routt County the Pawnee Generation Station in Morgan County and Valmont The other sites in Colorado include Colorado Springs Utilities Clear Spring Ranch Landfill which holds waste from the Ray Nixon Power Plant and the former Martin Drake Power Plant Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association s Nucla Ash Disposal Facility which holds waste from its former Nucla Station in Montrose County and its Craig Station in Moffat County and the Platte River Power Authority s Rawhide Potency Station in Larimer County Earthjustice also revealed there is a coal-ash waste site at the former Martin Drake Power Plant in El Paso County but there are no available reporting documents online and efforts to reach Colorado Springs Utilities were unsuccessful It is also unknown whether there is coal-ash waste associated with the former W N Clark Power Plant in Fremont County which was decommissioned in Earthjustice lists three Colorado coal-ash sites among the preponderance contaminated in the country because they have multiple pollutants exceeding EPA standards Valmont is ranked st Tri-State s retired Nucla station is th and Xcel s Hayden Station is th While it is unclear exactly how much coal ash is buried in landfills and sitting in retention ponds across the state a Denver Post review of available coal combustion residual inspection reports revealed more than million tons at the various sites No reports are available for landfills that were closed before Xcel s seven sites contain more than million tons of coal ash according to inspection reports the company posted online However not every Xcel disposal site has an updated document on the company s coal-ash management website in part because of the change in reporting rules for coal-ash sites The Post unveiled online reports missing for Arapahoe Cameo Cherokee and Pawnee s north landfill sites Xcel declined to make its coal-ash managers available for interviews with The Post Instead Aguayo the company s Colorado spokeswoman sent an emailed declaration and referred the newspaper to the company s website for any information on coal-ash management Protecting our customers and the setting is a priority and we have a strong record of environmental leadership Aguayo reported in the declaration We re committed to responsibly managing impacts from our operations including from prior coal plants like Valmont In the past three years Xcel has been cited twice by the EPA for failures to comply with coal-ash regulations Xcel s Cherokee Generating Station transitioned to a natural-gas-fired power plant in and closed five dumpsites including a retention pond on the property But closing a coal-ash disposal location does not mean the coal ash is removed Rather no more waste is dumped there Xcel was fined in September after lithium was discovered leaking from its Cherokee plant identifiable by its red-and-white smokestack visible from north Denver The EPA cited the company for failing to adequately prepare groundwater monitoring reports failing to meet groundwater monitoring performance standards failing to accurately represent readings in groundwater quality and failing to use the the majority effective statistical methods to analyze groundwater figures according to the agency s consent agreement Xcel agreed to correct its missteps according to the consent agreement between the company and the EPA The utility is still assessing how to treat the lithium plume announced Lauren Whitney a state wellbeing department spokeswoman Xcel is evaluating two solutions and will hold a masses meeting before selecting a method and starting work But that s not the largest fine Xcel has paid for coal-ash violations In the EPA penalized the company for failing to comply with regulations on the disposal of coal ash and not properly monitoring groundwater at its Comanche station in Pueblo The company paid million to settle with the federal cabinet That site is releasing cobalt into the groundwater Xcel has identified the plume tested the groundwater and is putting together a remediation strategy Whitney declared Between August and February the remediation strategy included injecting a restoration reagent into six injection wells using an EPA-approved method Whitney declared Wells near the plume did not have cobalt levels that exceeded the drinking water standards Meanwhile Xcel continues to dump coal ash into a landfill in Pueblo until the coal plant is decommissioned no later than Dec As of about million tons of coal ash are in the ground at Comanche according to the greater part newest inspection analysis Cleaning up Valmont Valmont Station will be the first site in Colorado where Xcel plans to convert coal ash into Portland cement an ingredient used to make concrete And it is the only site with such a massive cleanup in the company s plans Aguayo revealed The company has contracted with Charah Solutions a Kentucky-based company that specializes in coal-ash management and cleanup Charah has hired Geocycle an industrial waste management company to help with the project Aguayo explained in the utility s declaration Charah is expected to process about million tons of ash over years to remove the hazardous waste Charah and Geocycle use a proprietary system to recycle the ash into cement It involves a mobile kiln that would be set up on the Valmont property and the companies would use a baghouse an industrial dust collector to prevent harmful air emissions Aguayo reported Charah will only excavate the amount of ash that its workers intend to process in one day to avoid leaving excess ash on the ground that could blow into the region at night when the work stops she disclosed The equipment is enclosed to manage dust and the noise it makes is similar to Valmont s normal operations The cement created onsite will be sold and used in the Denver realm Aguayo commented This project provides large-scale environmental benefits by eliminating the need to mine new raw materials for Portland cement and by eliminating the need for cross-regional travel of Portland cement and or concrete to Denver s local region her message commented Operations will run during daylight hours seven days a week Work will stop when wind gusts exceed mph or sustained winds exceed mph according to the company s engineering and design plan Once the ash is removed the contractor will grade the area and put down clean soil and grass seed Any ash that is not suitable for recycling will be placed in a specific area of the landfill and then the landfill will be closed Hayes the air quality manager at Boulder County Inhabitants Soundness disclosed he is the greater part concerned about how much dust will flow into the air once the project starts The engineering and design plan calls for dust control systems but lacks details That s what I m really waiting to see are the controls we want to see in that dust control plan Hayes disclosed The dust concerns from start to finish are when they are excavating the landfill sites Hayes hopes more of those details will be included in the company s air-pollution permit He wants the state wellness department to require continuous air-quality monitoring at the site but so far the state has not agreed to consider it once the air permit is filed CDPHE says they ve never required it in an air permit Hayes reported I revealed Yeah but we ve never issued an air permit for a coal-ash landfill project This is a unique and novel project and we just don t need to go with what we ve done in the past Hayes explained he s not optimistic that a monitoring requirement will be included in the air permit so he is searching for outside funding to pay for it In our current atmosphere getting funding for air monitoring is proving to be a little challenging he announced Federal grants that used to be available for that are dwindling and going away But the air quality predicament at a coal-ash landfill only occurs once a company starts excavating the material The more critical dilemma at the bulk coal-ash waste sites is the groundwater contamination It s a huge matter We ve been burning coal since the early s commented Evans with Earthjustice The ash was not regulated until so billions of tons of coal ash have been dumped in pits and ponds and used as fill across the United States Almost every state had a coal-burning power plant For years companies were allowed to dump the ash without lining the landfills More than of coal-ash waste sites have contaminated groundwater above federal safety standards she announced It s not an exaggeration to say that whenever you dump coal ash you re going to get water contamination Evans announced At the Valmont Station Xcel has monitored groundwater with a grid of wells that the utility drilled in the area explained Carl Job a water quality specialist with Boulder County Populace Robustness Those wells detected elevated levels of lithium and selenium in a plume moving north and east of the property and the plume was moving toward nearby drinking water wells The Valmont Power Station as seen from nearby Legion Park on June in Boulder Colorado Photo by RJ Sangosti The Denver Post Xcel filed an ash landfill remedy selection statement which proposes a cleanup method in May with the state strength department The record disclosed two plumes were creeping out of the landfill The first plume contains elevated concentrations of lithium and selenium while the second plume exceeds lithium levels mandated by the EPA These plumes are not adversely impacting drinking water in the area and the groundwater will continue to be monitored to ensure ongoing protection of human robustness in the area until remedy completion the account stated There are also no inhabitants drinking water supplies in the vicinity of the impacted groundwater The contaminated plumes are not a threat to majority Boulder residents who get their water from the city system Job revealed The real concern surrounds the meager wells nearby where people get their drinking water which are not as regulated as residents water systems Only one well has shown higher levels of lithium contamination and Xcel is providing an alternate source of water disclosed Erin Dodge Boulder County Populace Vitality s water quality undertaking coordinator The plumes are not impacting Boulder Creek or South Boulder Creek she announced Groundwater remediation is proceeding under a compliance order from the state Whitney reported Xcel has submitted a proposal for treating the groundwater and it is under review by the state and Boulder County Once it is approved Xcel will submit a design plan for the state robustness department to review Xcel is proposing to use reverse osmosis which is a proven method for cleaning water That system will extract groundwater through wells and collection trenches and truck it off-site for healing the analysis stated Related Articles U S coal ash toxicity rules eased after industry balks Gray waters and gray sludge Photos from the Dan River coal ash spill House passes bill to thwart EPA regulations on coal ash disposal EPA considers first-time rules for coal ash Soundness problems communicated after coal ash sludge spill The remedy selection statement estimated it would take to years to treat the groundwater Meanwhile there is no other long-term plan for removing the millions of tons of coal ash buried in Colorado Chosen utilities such as the Platte River Authority sell specific ash for beneficial reuse Platte River sells ash to architectural block manufacturers and to liquid-waste disposal facilities according to its company website Authorities at the Colorado Department of Masses Robustness and Circumstances say they are committed to making sure coal ash does not contaminate groundwater The state regularly monitors coal-ash waste sites stated Tracie White director of the medical agency s hazardous waste division And Valmont is of particular interest because of the size of its ash reuse project We are committed to making sure coal ash landfills in Colorado are protective of human physical condition and the circumstances White explained At Valmont Station our organization is closely reviewing the proposed cleanup remedy to ensure it meets all state regulations and prevents further impacts to groundwater We regularly monitor these sites to track trace and treat expected contamination and we work in partnership with local communities throughout the 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