Events Calendar
In This Section
Take comfort in knowing Browns could be bigger losers
Wine offers a taste of KSU's centennial
Get ready for detour, delays on Route 8
House passes health-care legislation
Pryor's play puts Buckeyes in control
Bulldogs snap up fourth state title
Best Buy plans digital delivery service for videos
Most Read Stories
Family found dead in Ohio home
Robbers order bar patrons to empty pockets
Man gets 3 years in prison for having sex with horse
Sex-toy study at Duke University raises some eyebrows
Akron man turns himself in after authorities turn up heat
Get ready for detour, delays on Route 8
Man appears alive at own funeral
Blogs:
Pets:
Not 101 Dalmations…but close!
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Saturday entertainment, one more time …
Akron Zips:
No. 1 UA soccer remains perfect, Zips football defeats rival Flashes
Tribe Matters:
Tribe makes roster moves
Cleveland Browns:
Lewis doesn't like boycott
Kent State Sports:
Kent State falls to Akron, 20-28
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs at Knicks
Buckeye Blogging:
Weekly ‘B’ Deck Report – New Mexico St.
Varsity Letters:
Wrestling, bowling teams prepare for season
All Da King's Men:
Bigger And Better Boondoggles
Blog of Mass Destruction:
The Shooter
Akron Law Café:
NEW U.S. Supreme Court Database
See Jane Style:
Muffle Your Muffler
Car Chase:
Perfect Weather for an Autumn Drive
Let's Talk Real Estate:
RUMORS: Downtown Restaurant Explosion
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Jack is looking for a trip to Southern Ohio the week of November 16.
Sound Check:
The Black Keys to perform benefit concert at Musica on November 27
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – Why People Do Not Live in Northeast Ohio
Akron Gamer:
New 'Call of Duty' could set entertainment record
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 04:58 p.m. EDT, Jun 30, 2009
A sludge-filled lake owned by Akron's FirstEnergy Corp. is on a newly released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list of 44 dangerous coal-waste storage facilities across the country.
The news comes as ''no big surprise'' to the utility because of the sheer size of Little Blue Run that takes scrubber slurry from the nearby coal-fired Bruce Mansfield Power Station at Shippingport, Pa., said company spokesman Mark Durbin.
''It's a large facility ... but in our mind, it's not a safety concern,'' he said of the rock-fill dam and the resulting 1,300-acre reservoir. ''It was built with safety in mind.''
The dam was built in the early 1970s. FirstEnergy began dumping the sludge from the plant's clean-air scrubbers into the reservoir in 1975. The sludge is piped seven miles from the Mansfield plant.
The lake gets heavy doses of calcium sulfite, a toothpaste-like sludge that is up to 350 feet deep in the reservoir.
The dam contains 9 million cubic yards of fill material. It is 400 feet high, 1,300 feet thick at the base and 2,200 feet across at the crest of the dam, Durbin said.
Most of the reservoir is in Pennsylvania with a small part in adjoining West Virginia, he said.
The FirstEnergy sludge is like a low-grade concrete and is not as liquidy as the sludge in the Tennessee reservoir that broke last year, he said.
Little Blue Run typically gets about 1,700 tons of sludge per year from the Mansfield plant.
The cobalt-blue water is about 35 feet deep and must be treated before it is released to the nearby Ohio River, he said.
The 400-foot-dam is inspected by a contractor twice a year and checked by the state of Pennsylvania, Durbin said. It was last checked Jan. 21.
Some coal ash from the Mansfield plant is recycled into wallboard and some goes into a landfill, not into water, he said.
The Mansfield plant annually burns in excess of 6 million tons of coal and can produce electricity for 1.5 million homes. It isFirstEnergy's largest coal-fired plant.
Little Blue Run is among 44 hazardous so-called ''wet dumps'' for coal waste in 10 states.
North Carolina has 12 sites on the EPA list of ''high hazard potential.'' It was followed by nine sites in Arizona, seven in Kentucky and four in West Virginia. Ohio had six sites: two at American Electric Power's Gavin plant at Cheshire, three at the Muskingum River Plant in Waterford and one at the Cardinal Plant in Brilliant.
The EPA said the facilities are on the list not because the structures are weak but because a failure could kill neighbors.
The 44 sites will get ''high priority attention'' as the EPA continues assessing impoundment safety, the agency said. It intends to call for cleanup and repairs as needed.
The EPA had earlier said it had a list of 44 dangerous coal-waste sites filled with toxic coal ash and heavy metals but had refused to release the list because of homeland security concerns. It offered to share the knowledge with members of Congress and their staffs. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., led the push to get the EPA analysis released.
The danger from the ponds and lakes containing coal waste became apparent when a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-waste facility at Kingston, Tenn., was breached Dec. 22. That released 1 billion gallons of fly ash slurry that covered 300 acres, polluted two streams and threatened aquifers.
The EPA said the list was compiled from information submitted to the agency by electric utilities in response to a March 9 request for information.
The EPA is expected to propose new rules of managing coal combustion wastes by Dec. 31.
Ohio is No. 2 in the country for having most bodies of water for coal ash storage with eight. Indiana has 11.
In 2007, America's electric utilities reported producing 131 million tons of coal ash — with 40 percent of that waste going into impoundments for storage.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
A sludge-filled lake owned by Akron's FirstEnergy Corp. is on a newly released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list of 44 dangerous coal-waste storage facilities across the country.
The news comes as ''no big surprise'' to the utility because of the sheer size of Little Blue Run that takes scrubber slurry from the nearby coal-fired Bruce Mansfield Power Station at Shippingport, Pa., said company spokesman Mark Durbin.
''It's a large facility ... but in our mind, it's not a safety concern,'' he said of the rock-fill dam and the resulting 1,300-acre reservoir. ''It was built with safety in mind.''
The dam was built in the early 1970s. FirstEnergy began dumping the sludge from the plant's clean-air scrubbers into the reservoir in 1975. The sludge is piped seven miles from the Mansfield plant.
The lake gets heavy doses of calcium sulfite, a toothpaste-like sludge that is up to 350 feet deep in the reservoir.
The dam contains 9 million cubic yards of fill material. It is 400 feet high, 1,300 feet thick at the base and 2,200 feet across at the crest of the dam, Durbin said.
Most of the reservoir is in Pennsylvania with a small part in adjoining West Virginia, he said.
The FirstEnergy sludge is like a low-grade concrete and is not as liquidy as the sludge in the Tennessee reservoir that broke last year, he said.
Little Blue Run typically gets about 1,700 tons of sludge per year from the Mansfield plant.
The cobalt-blue water is about 35 feet deep and must be treated before it is released to the nearby Ohio River, he said.
The 400-foot-dam is inspected by a contractor twice a year and checked by the state of Pennsylvania, Durbin said. It was last checked Jan. 21.
Some coal ash from the Mansfield plant is recycled into wallboard and some goes into a landfill, not into water, he said.
The Mansfield plant annually burns in excess of 6 million tons of coal and can produce electricity for 1.5 million homes. It isFirstEnergy's largest coal-fired plant.
Little Blue Run is among 44 hazardous so-called ''wet dumps'' for coal waste in 10 states.
North Carolina has 12 sites on the EPA list of ''high hazard potential.'' It was followed by nine sites in Arizona, seven in Kentucky and four in West Virginia. Ohio had six sites: two at American Electric Power's Gavin plant at Cheshire, three at the Muskingum River Plant in Waterford and one at the Cardinal Plant in Brilliant.
The EPA said the facilities are on the list not because the structures are weak but because a failure could kill neighbors.
The 44 sites will get ''high priority attention'' as the EPA continues assessing impoundment safety, the agency said. It intends to call for cleanup and repairs as needed.
The EPA had earlier said it had a list of 44 dangerous coal-waste sites filled with toxic coal ash and heavy metals but had refused to release the list because of homeland security concerns. It offered to share the knowledge with members of Congress and their staffs. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., led the push to get the EPA analysis released.
The danger from the ponds and lakes containing coal waste became apparent when a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-waste facility at Kingston, Tenn., was breached Dec. 22. That released 1 billion gallons of fly ash slurry that covered 300 acres, polluted two streams and threatened aquifers.
The EPA said the list was compiled from information submitted to the agency by electric utilities in response to a March 9 request for information.
The EPA is expected to propose new rules of managing coal combustion wastes by Dec. 31.
Ohio is No. 2 in the country for having most bodies of water for coal ash storage with eight. Indiana has 11.
In 2007, America's electric utilities reported producing 131 million tons of coal ash — with 40 percent of that waste going into impoundments for storage.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Stow, OH
Posted 07:18 PM, 06/30/2009
I got curious and looked at the satelite photo of Little Blue on Google maps. It is one wierd looking body of whatever it is.
