Alabama and Coal Ash -not just at the landfill.

As we've reported, trainloads of coal ash from that 2008 spill at the TVA Kingston Plant in Tennessee are arriving daily at a privately owned landfill near Uniontown. The photos in this posting show part of the operation to move the coal ash from Tennessee to Alabama. Cleaning up the massive spill is expected to cost the TVA close to $2-Billion Dollars.

Now EPA has released a report a report on coal ash "ponds", ranking their danger, and four of the twelve in Alabama receive ranks of either significant or high regarding the level of danger they present.

Nationally, the EPA reports there are 584 coal ash and similar disposal ponds...twice as many as had previously been reported. The information was given to a coalition of environmental groups, including Earth Justice on Friday. Here's the story about Alabama:

Alabama Power has six ponds, but none of them are considered dangerous.*

The Power South Energy Cooperative has three, but none are considered dangerous.

Four of the areas at TVA operated facilities...are considered dangerous:

The Colbert Power Station in Tuscumbia:

The basin in disposal area 5 and ash pond #4 are rated HIGH

Ash pond #4 is rated HIGH.

The Widows Creek Power Station in Stevenson:

Gypsum Stack (wet stacking area) HIGH

Ash Pond - SIGNIFICANT

Two of the ash ponds are almost 60 years old....the Widows Creek Gypsum stack dates to 1950, and Alabama Power has an East Gadsden ash pond that is the oldest in the state, 1948.

The EPA's designation of how dangerous the ponds are is based on potential spills, not on any health dangers the coal ash itself presents. The TVA maintains the main danger is coal ash is in breathing it in, and that is why they have kept it in ponds. Nonetheless, the agency decided last week to switch over to contained dry storage following the disaster in Harriman, Tennessee.

[*The Southern Studies group names Alabama Power as one of the companies refusing to release information about some ash ponds, some of which they say are the biggest in the nation, covering hundreds of acres.]