Environmental groups fear Memphis coal plant cleanup may put arsenic in Mississippi River

The Tennessee Valley Authority is ready to clean up and demolish the Allen Fossil plant in South Memphis.

But plans to do so are drawing concern from environmental groups that say the cleanup process has not been publicly vetted and involves pumping dangerous amounts of arsenic solids into the Mississippi River.

Inactive since March 2018, the once coal-powered Allen plant still contains an estimated 3 million cubic yards of coal ash waste and other combustible residuals. 

The water near and in these coal ash pits, and their stilling ponds, were recently ranked among the worst in the nation for contamination due to the high amount of arsenic present in the water. 

TVA has said its preferred option for cleaning up the coal ash ponds is removal, but doing so involves a process called "dewatering," and the Southern Environmental Law Center has criticized TVA's dewatering plan. 

In a letter submitted to the Tennessee Valley Authority and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the SELC lists several objections to the plans for cleaning up Allen. 

TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said while the agency has not "officially" reviewed the SELC letter, the objections are "scare tactics without science." 

Here's what the SELC says is wrong 

Under the current plan, the SELC says, water from the coal ash ponds that is contaminated with high amounts of arsenic will be pumped through an open-air channel into the Mississippi River, just downstream of Downtown Memphis. 

The water in question is referred to in the letter as pore water, which is "the water trapped within the void space between ash particles," according to a previous TVA report.

"By TVA's own admission," the Southern Environmental Law Center letter said, "concentrations of arsenic in its pore water range up to 13,700 micrograms per liter (of water), with an average of 1,350 micrograms per liter, in other words, concentrations of arsenic over a thousand times the safe level for drinking water."

SELC used these figures, added in the maximum amount of water allowed daily under the dewatering plan, 15 million gallons a day, and concluded, "TVA could be dumping hundreds of pounds of arsenic into the surrounding surface waters every day."

Further, the SELC says, the Tennessee Valley Authority plan does not treat the pore water before discharge, unless the concentration of arsenic exceeds 12,600 micrograms per liter. 

TVA also cites 12,600 micrograms per liter as the point of contamination, but it says not only is it an acceptable level, according to United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, but that it's actually a conservative level of arsenic before decontamination efforts are triggered. 

"That’s actually 80% of what is considered a safe level by EPA, so we are being more conservative than required," Brooks said. 

SELC questions permit validity

The SELC also says the dewatering plan is taking place under an invalid permit, but the state approved the plan anyway.

The state website lists TVA's permit as having expired in 2010 but is under "re-issuance." 

The SELC wants a new permit approval process for the dewatering plan, one that is vetted by the public. Certain types of groundwater discharge, as well as the discharge point where the water would drain into the Mississippi, are not valid under the current permit, the SELC says.

The state, Brooks says, chose to administratively continue the existing permit. Further, he said, the plan to dewater the Allen plant was available for public discussion in open houses hosted by the TVA last year. 

Kim Schofinski with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation told The Commercial Appeal that the 2007 permit was continued and still valid. 

"We want people to know that TVA is taking every precaution to be protective of the environment and the community," Brooks said. "We have committed to remediate the site, and this dewatering is the next step to be able to remove the coal ash and make the site available for future economic development."

Scott Banbury with the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club disputes the idea that environmental groups are trying to produce scare tactics. Rather, Banbury said, groups are calling attention to an intricate and delicate environmental remediation process that should be heavily scrutinized. 

Banbury says it's a process that should be slowed down, and subject to public meetings. 

"The fact that TVA would try to approve an action like this as an addendum of an expired permit," Banbury said, "it's affront to the people of Memphis."