TVA Reviewing ‘Extensive’ New EPA Emissions, Coal Ash Rules

TVA Reviewing ‘Extensive’ New EPA Emissions, Coal Ash Rules, CEO Says Daniel Dassow

Knoxville News Sentinel As the Tennessee Valley Authority forges ahead with a strategy to close all its coal plants and replace them mostly with natural gas, another emissions-heavy fossil fuel, strict new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency are likely to affect the federal utility unevenly. The EPA issued four final rules on April 25 aimed at drastically limiting emissions both from old coal plants still operating and new gas plants yet to operate. It also expanded previous limits on water pollution from coal plants and regulations on coal ash to include waste landfills at retired coal plants.

It’s too early for TVA to know exactly how it will comply with the new rules, said CEO and President Jeff Lyash on an April 30 earnings call.

Two TVA actions make the utility more prepared to comply with the rules, Lyash said, and both came in the years since a disastrous coal ash spill at TVA’s Kingston coal plant in 2008.

The first is the utility’s rapid push to close coal plants, which could be accelerated in response to the EPA rules. Since 2012, TVA has closed seven coal plants. Along with scrubber technology that removes certain emissions before they hit the air, the closures have allowed the utility to cut its emissions from all fuels by around 60% since 2005.

TVA plans to close all its coal plants and reduce its emissions 80% by 2035, even as it builds more natural gas plants.

The second action is a high-tech monitoring system TVA developed for buried coal ash sites – the first of its kind in the country – which uses more than 16,000 sensors to collect data on waste storage sites every hour of every day.

Coal ash, the waste product of burning coal, contains contaminants including arsenic and mercury, and can pose significant environmental and human health risks if it leaks into groundwater or drinking water.

Hundreds of workers hired by TVA’s coal ash spill cleanup contractor Jacobs Solutions sued Jacobs, alleging it failed to protect them from the waste, leading to widespread death and illness of workers. Jacobs settled with the workers last year for an undisclosed amount.

TVA will examine how to integrate new EPA regulations into its coal ash monitoring program, Lyash said.

“They’re pretty extensive. They’re complicated,” Lyash said, referring to the new rules. “We’ll take a look at these new EPA regulations and incorporate them into that program to make sure we’re compliant. And of course, we’ll be evaluating the cost impact of that over the coming months.” TVA delayed a draft of its long-term planning document, which will outline how the utility plans to meet both increased electricity demand and its goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.