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EPA Proposal to Regulate Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs)

What is EPA proposing?

In June 2010, the EPA proposed federal regulations to regulate coal combustions residuals (CCRs).  EPA proposed a range of options including their regulation as a hazardous waste or a non-hazardous waste.  CCRs are currently regulated as a non-hazardous waste under state authority.

What are Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs)?

Coal combustion residuals are coal ash or the byproducts from pollution control equipment.  Typically, the Seminole Generating Station (SGS) produces between 800,000-850,000 tons of CCRs per year.

What does Seminole currently do with CCRs?

Approximately 500,000-600,000 tons per year are sold and reused to make wallboard or concrete block.  Any remaining CCRs are placed in a state-of-the-art, on-site landfill, permitted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).   CCR sales and landfill savings have reduced the SGS operating costs by more than $120 million.   These revenues and savings are passed on to our cooperative consumers in the form of lower electric rates.

How would declaring CCRs to be hazardous affect Seminole, its Members and their consumers?

If CCRs are declared to be hazardous, they could no longer be beneficially reused in wallboard and concrete block, and Seminole would lose the revenue from current sales.  The worst impact would result from having to send all CCRs to another state for disposal since Florida does not allow the storage of hazardous waste.

How much could this cost Seminole and our Members’ consumers?

We estimate it would cost $146 million per year for the out-of-state disposal of CCRs, provided another state would accept the material, and if disposal costs remain what they are today.  This would increase electric costs to our average residential consumer by $135 per year and costs to commercial consumers by $525 per year.

Will other utilities be affected?

In Florida, the JEA, Progress Energy, TECO, Orlando Utilities Commission, City of Lakeland, City of Gainesville, and Gulf Power all burn coal and would be affected.

Are CCRs hazardous?

The EPA, state and federal agencies, the Electric Power Research Institute, and other academia have studied the toxicity levels of CCRs for more than three decades and found them to be well below the hazardous waste criteria.  On four prior occasions, with the latest assessment in 2000, the EPA determined that CCRs do not warrant regulation as a hazardous waste.

So why is EPA considering designating CCRs as a hazardous waste?

In 2008, coal ash stored in a retaining pond in Tennessee broke through a levy and spilled into a river.  The Tennessee Department of Health concluded that the coal ash did not harm human health, but the damage was caused by the size of the release.  EPA’s initial objective was to set standards for wet ash storage facilities.

Does Seminole store coal ash in ponds?

No.  Seminole stores coal ash in a dry state in compliance with strict FDEP requirements.  

How can you help?

Act now to prevent the EPA from defining coal ash and other Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) as hazardous.  Tell Senator Nelson to support the coal ash amendment to the transportation reauthorization bill (H.R. 4348) that would prevent EPA from regulating CCRs as hazardous.  Senator Nelson is one of the eight Senate Democrats who sits on the conference committee that will decide the fate of the amendment.  His support of the amendment could be the difference to make sure it moves forward.  This may be the only legislative opportunity in the 112^th Congress to prevent the EPA from defining coal ash and other Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) as hazardous.  Senator Nelson’s support of this amendment is critical.  Please ask for his support today. 

Background

•          SECI is a non-profit provider of wholesale electricity to 10, non-profit, consumer-owned distribution cooperatives.  These distribution cooperatives provide retail electricity to approximately 1.7 million consumers in portions of 45 Florida counties.

•          The Seminole Generating Station (SGS), a 1300-MW coal-fired plant located in rural Putnam County, Florida, produces approximately 50% of Seminole’s Member needs. 

•          SGS has installed more than $530 million in environmental control equipment, making it one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the U.S.  SGS received a Sustainable Leadership Award from the Council for Sustainable Florida for its beneficial use of CCRs.   SGS was also recognized as one of the top six coal plants in the world in 2009.

•          One of the most successful reuses of CCRs at the SGS is the processing of a toothpaste-like sludge from its sulfur dioxide control systems into synthetic gypsum used to make wallboard.   Since 2000, more than 6 million tons of synthetic gypsum has been used in the making of wallboard at the Lafarge Wallboard facility in Palatka, Florida.

Bottom ash has been reused in concrete block since the plant went into operation in 1984.