Published: June 30, 2009 04:00 pm      

Another look — 07/01/09

EPA inspection of Big Sandy coal ash storage is a positive

We find comfort in the fact that the coal ash storage area at the Big Sandy Power Plant near Louisa is one of 44 sites that will be inspected by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA released the 44 sites in 10 states Monday saying they are similar to one that flooded a neighborhood in Tennessee in December. Two days before Christmas, an earthen dam broke at a coal ash pond operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority near Kingston, Tenn., sending 5 million cubic yards of ash and sludge across more than 300 acres, destroying or damaging 40 homes. The incident prompted a safety review of storage ponds that hold the waste byproduct near large coal-burning power plants and a call for federal oversight.

Selecting the Big Sandy coal ash storage area does not mean the EPA believes it is at risk of imminent collapse. It just wants to make doubly sure it and the other storage sites are as safe as possible. Those who live near the Big Sandy plant and along the adjacent Big Sandy River should welcome the additional inspections.

The 44 sites are classified as potentially highly hazardous because they are near where people live and not because of any discovered defect.

The Big Sandy plant is one of 11 sites in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana operated by American Electric Power slated for inspection by the EPA. AEP officials insist the site are routinely inspected and are safe. “We go above and beyond to make sure our (coal ash) dams are safe,” said AEP spokesman Pat Hemlepp. He said the sites are inspected annually by the corporation and more frequently by the individual power plant officials.

We trust at the dams are safe, but another inspection by an independent teams of experts can’t do any harm and may actually identify some previously unseen problems.