Seven Ameren Missouri ash ponds rated 'poor' by EPA

Nov 28 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jeffrey Tomich St. Louis Post-Dispatch

More than half of the 12 Ameren Missouri coal ash ponds inspected for structural integrity last year were rated "poor" by the Environmental Protection Agency, which recommended the utility take action to strengthen them.

A nationwide review of coal ash impoundments was prompted by the December 2008 Kingston, Tenn., ash spill, considered among the nation's worst environmental disasters. Summaries of the findings of the inspections were only recently made available on the EPA's website, and the agency has yet to make full reports available because Ameren claims they contain proprietary information.

Ameren doesn't dispute the EPA's findings, but did challenge the "poor" ratings assigned to one ash pond at the Sioux power plant in St. Charles County and all six active ash ponds at the Meramec plant in South St. Louis County, said Mark C. Birk, vice president of generation for the St. Louis-based utility.

The agency seemed to have no set methodology for rating the condition of ash ponds, Birk said. "Naturally we're going to fix what was recommended," he said. "A lot of the things they pointed out are things we had pointed out to them."

At Sioux, one of two ash ponds was rated "poor" because of seepage -- a problem that has already been fixed, he said. At Meramec, EPA contractors determined the slope of ash pond embankments were too steep in places. Birk said the ponds were designed to engineering standards decades ago, and that Ameren is broadening them to meet updated safety standards.

Ameren has already completed remedial work at Sioux. Repairs at Meramec are more than halfway complete and will be done by yearend, he said.

"We would expect by the end of the year all of our ponds would be satisfactory," Birk said.

Regulation of coal waste has come under the microscope locally and across the nation. Here, Ameren Missouri's plans construct a new coal ash landfill next to its Labadie plant in Franklin County generated heated discussion, as did information that one of the existing ponds at the plant had been leaking for almost 20 years. The EPA is also weighing two rules that for the first time would establish rules for coal combustion waste disposal -- a plan that some members of Congress have tried to block.

The EPA hired dam safety engineers to inspect the structural integrity of 347 coal ash impoundments nationwide, including all those that handle wet coal waste, to avoid a repeat of Kingston. The assessments were based on visual inspections, interviews with utility staff and reviews of geotechnical studies related to the design, construction and operation of the facilities, the agency said. Contractors were asked to summarize the condition of the the ponds as satisfactory, fair, poor or unsatisfactory -- terms frequently used in dam safety.

Each impoundment was also assigned a hazard potential rating -- less than low; low; significant; or high -- to reflect the potential for harm if the structure failed. The Sioux ash pond rated "poor," for instance, and was also assigned a "significant" hazard rating, meaning failure could cause economic loss or environmental or infrastructure damage.

While none of 374 ash impoundments inspected nationwide were found to be "unsatisfactory" -- meaning they pose an immediate safety threat -- more than a fourth of them, or 103, were rated in "poor" shape, according to EPA data.

The "poor" ratings for the Ameren ash ponds doesn't mean they're immediate safety threats. However, the federal agency did ask the utility to perform requested remedial work within a year.

In all, the EPA looked at 41 ash ponds in Missouri and 31 in Illinois. Only three other ash impoundments in Missouri were labeled "poor" by federal regulators. All three are at Empire District Electric Co.'s coal plant at Asbury, Mo., and were given the designation because of a lack of technical information, according to the EPA. All of the Illinois ash ponds were rated "satisfactory" or "fair" for structural integrity, including all of Ameren's.

Ameren Missouri's five other ash ponds at Labadie, Sioux and Rush Island coal plants also rated "satisfactory" or "fair."

Draft and final copies of the full inspection reports are available on the EPA's website, which include photos, as well as copies of letters sent to facility managers and their comments to agency.

Ameren is one of nine utilities challenging the release of the reports, claiming they contain confidential business information. The EPA is reviewing the confidentiality claims and may later release full or redacted copies of the reports. So far, the agency has denied confidentiality claims.

The EPA said it's continuing to work with utilities to ensure the recommendations are implemented and giving special attention to those ash ponds given "poor" ratings.

Birk said Ameren Missouri's coal ash ponds and landfills get regular in-house assessments. They are inspected weekly by plant personnel and annually by the utility's dam safety group, created in 2006 following the collapse of the utility's Taum Sauk reservoir.

Ameren Missouri hired a contractor to perform safety reviews of all of its coal ash ponds in early 2010 in the wake of the Kingston spill, Birk said. The information gathered during those inspections was provided to the EPA and used to formulate the ratings assigned.

"We turned that report over to the EPA and that's part of what they used in their analysis," he said.

Most coal ash ponds or impoundments aren't regulated under Missouri's dam safety law, which only applies to structures over 35 feet in height or taller, Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Renee Bungart said. Also excluded are dams that are federally regulated.

Ameren's ash pond at the Rush Island power plant is one that is overseen by the state, she said.

Bungart said the DNR has inspected the pond as required by law and it is in compliance with safety standards.