BOULDER — When Xcel Vitality stopped burning coal at its Valmont Energy Station in 2017, it left 1.6 million tons of poisonous coal ash on the property, and now that waste is leaking hazardous metals into groundwater, threatening close by drinking-water wells.
Xcel plans to scoop a lot of the coal ash from a landfill on the web site and switch it into an ingredient in concrete to be bought in metro Denver. The challenge awaits approval from the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Setting.
The utility firm expects to spend $24 million over the following 10 to 12 years to take away ash and deal with contaminated groundwater, stated Michelle Aguayo, an Xcel spokeswoman.
Officers at Boulder County Public Well being are on board with the coal-ash cleanup, saying that recycling hazardous waste right into a helpful product is a confirmed resolution. It will rid the positioning of a poisonous substance and forestall anybody from trucking it to a different group.
“That’s one purpose we like this challenge — we’re not simply placing this challenge on another person. Another excuse we like it’s it will likely be a internet greenhouse gasoline discount,” stated Invoice Hayes, the county well being division’s air high quality program director. “We aren’t trucking it nationally. We’re creating one thing that shall be used domestically and received’t should be trucked in from 1000’s of miles.”
“Boulder County Public Well being helps the challenge,” he stated. “The helpful use challenge may have international impacts. However there shall be some danger with it.”
Xcel would be the first utility firm in Colorado to provoke such a large-scale coal-ash cleanup after lithium and selenium leaked into groundwater and seeped towards wells used for consuming water on close by properties.
However there are hundreds of thousands of tons of coal ash in different landfills and ponds round Colorado, and nearly all of these websites are leaching pollution into groundwater.
Over time, public reporting of coal-ash contamination has been inconsistent as a result of there was no regulation of the waste earlier than 2015. Even after that, utility corporations had been solely required to report monitoring outcomes from landfills that had been nonetheless in use — and people paperwork might be onerous to seek out and obscure.
Then, final 12 months, the Biden administration expanded these reporting necessities to all waste disposal websites, though nothing has but resulted from that rule change.
In 2022, two environmental organizations compiled an inventory of coal-ash waste websites throughout the USA, utilizing Environmental Safety Company stories, and their analysis recognized 12 recognized coal ash areas in Colorado.
Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Venture estimated that over the a long time 14 Colorado energy crops created greater than 1.7 million tons of ash per 12 months that went into landfills and retention ponds, based on their 212-page report.
The report positioned three of Colorado’s coal-ash waste websites among the many 50 most contaminated websites in the USA.
Whereas Xcel has a plan to take away coal ash on the outdated Valmont station, environmentalists say it’s unlikely that the majority utility corporations will clear their websites until pressured by federal or state regulators, or if sued by impacted communities. Utility corporations have a monitor file of doing the minimal quantity required beneath the EPA’s Coal Combustion Residuals guidelines, stated Abel Russ, senior counsel with the Environmental Integrity Venture.
“They discover methods to formally adjust to the rule however not do a lot with cleanup as a result of it’s costly and so they don’t wish to spend the cash,” Russ stated.
Xcel’s cleanup challenge at Valmont comes because the Trump administration reveals little urge for food for implementing current coal-ash disposal guidelines, because the president and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin push their “Powering the Nice American Comeback” agenda, which prioritizes coal as a number one supply of vitality within the nation.
On Thursday, a Republican-controlled Home environmental subcommittee held a listening to to assessment coal-ash rules and to debate whether or not or not “authorities crimson tape and paperwork can stifle innovation surrounding the usage of coal ash,” based on an announcement of the listening to.
In Colorado, utility corporations are phasing out coal-burning energy crops because the state strives to scale back its greenhouse-gas emissions and pivot towards renewable vitality resembling wind and photo voltaic. These corporations will proceed to provide coal ash till that occurs. In the meantime, the retention ponds and landfills which have held the ash for many years will not be going away.
For instance, Tri-State Era and Transmission Affiliation’s ash disposal facility close to its Nucla Station in Montrose County obtained waste from 1987 till 2019, when the coal plant was retired. The corporate reported final 12 months that 4.8 million tons of coal ash are in a landfill, and that the electrical cooperative continues upkeep on the waste web site.
Final 12 months, Tri-State stated it had taken steps to stop erosion, together with including riprap alongside the perimeter and constructing a 1.5-foot-tall berm, based on the corporate’s 2024 inspection report.
The Valmont Energy Station on North 63rd Avenue in Boulder operated as a coal-fired electrical energy era station for nearly a century, till it was transformed to a natural-gas-powered station in September 2017. Throughout that point, Xcel dumped its coal ash — also referred to as coal combustion residuals — into three ponds and a landfill.
In 2020, Xcel’s groundwater monitoring detected lithium and selenium leaching from a 60-acre landfill that was in operation from 1993 till 2017. That led the corporate to give you a plan to take away the ash from the positioning and cease the leaks.
However it’s been an extended course of.
Xcel submitted its engineering and design plan earlier this 12 months to elucidate how the cleanup will work. That plan continues to be beneath assessment by the state well being division’s Hazardous Supplies and Waste Administration Division and shall be topic to public remark as soon as preliminary approval is given.
The corporate additionally should apply for a allow to emit pollution into the air throughout the cement-making challenge, and that should even be authorised by the state.
Work can not begin till these approvals have been given. Nonetheless, Xcel says it is going to start in 2026.
A nationwide drawback
Nationally, 5 billion tons of coal ash are estimated to have been created by coal-powered electrical energy crops because the late 1800s, stated Lisa Evans, senior counsel with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental regulation group.
Coal ash is the second-largest industrial waste stream within the nation, accounting for 70 million tons pouring into landfills and retention ponds yearly, Earthjustice analysis discovered.
“In case you ask if there’s a giant drawback with coal ash within the U.S., the reply is sure as a result of coal ash was mismanaged for many years,” Evans stated.
Hazardous chemical compounds present in coal ash embrace arsenic, boron, cobalt, chromium, lead, lithium, radium and selenium. These chemical compounds are recognized to trigger an elevated danger of assorted cancers, coronary heart and thyroid illness, respiratory sicknesses and neurological issues.
Lithium is a naturally occurring metallic and has varied industrial makes use of, together with as a fabric utilized in batteries. The EPA has positioned lithium on an inventory of precedence contaminants in consuming water, however has not established rules on how a lot is an appropriate minimal degree. Lithium has been recognized to trigger renal and neurological issues in folks.
Selenium can be a naturally occurring metallic and has helpful functions, together with as a necessary nutrient at low ranges. The EPA has established a most degree for that metallic, which might harm the liver, kidneys, nervous system and circulatory system, and trigger hair loss.
Coal-ash disposal in the USA was unregulated till after the December 2008 Kingston TVA coal ash spill in jap Tennessee.
In that catastrophe, a dike used to include coal ash broke close to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, dumping 5.4 million cubic yards of poisonous coal ash into close by water, together with the Emory and Clinch rivers, and contaminating greater than 300 acres of land. It took greater than six years to scrub the mess from rivers and streams, and personal property. Tons of of employees had been sickened — and dozens died — from publicity to arsenic, lead, mercury and radium that was within the coal ash.
“That was simply so dramatic that it centered everybody’s consideration on it. It reminded everybody that it’s an enormous waste stream,” Russ stated.
When People first began burning coal to offer electrical energy, nobody thought concerning the ash byproduct left over after the coal burned. The ash was dumped in unlined lagoons and landfills with out a lot thought.
“It’s the sheer quantity of it and the focus of heavy metals in it,” Russ stated. “They didn’t wrap their heads round it till it was too late.”
The EPA established the primary guidelines for coal-ash administration in 2015 within the wake of the Kingston catastrophe. The principles addressed the dangers related to coal-ash disposal, together with leaks into groundwater, mud blowing into the air and failures of limitations round landfills.
The federal authorities additionally started requiring record-keeping and reporting at energetic coal-ash landfills throughout the nation, and the rules allowed for the helpful use of coal ash, which is what Xcel is planning for the Valmont Energy Station in Boulder.
These 2015 guidelines solely utilized to energetic landfills and excluded a number of the oldest coal-ash ponds and landfills within the nation. In 2024, the EPA, beneath President Joe Biden, tightened guidelines governing these older ponds and landfills that required monitoring for pollution and cleanup.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration has already signaled that it’ll not prioritize coal-ash enforcement, Evans stated.
In March, Zeldin introduced a plan to shift coal-ash regulation to the states with EPA assist, and pledged to vary the principles on compliance deadlines by the tip of this 12 months.
Meaning there shall be uneven enforcement throughout the nation, with coal-friendly states resembling Wyoming and North Dakota turning into lax whereas different states, together with Colorado, sort out the problem, Evans stated.
“Coal ash is like working on a treadmill. We acquire floor and lose floor,” Evans stated. “We made progress with Obama, and Trump tried to rescind it, however ended up simply delaying. Then we received a brand new rule with President Biden to fill the gaps. And now the Trump administration desires to undo it.”
A Colorado drawback
There are 12 recognized areas in Colorado the place coal ash has been dumped, and people websites embrace 38 coal-ash ponds and landfills, based on a database maintained by Earthjustice. There might be different unknown websites the place coal ash was saved lengthy earlier than any rules existed, the environmental group says.
These 12 websites are on the grounds of former or energetic coal-burning energy crops, or close by landfills, and are the duty of the utility corporations that personal them. It’s unclear precisely how a lot coal ash is buried within the floor in Colorado due to incomplete reporting.
Xcel is accountable for seven of the coal-ash waste websites within the state: the previous Arapahoe Era Station in Denver; the previous Cameo Era Station in Mesa County; the Cherokee Era Station in Denver; the Comanche Era Station in Pueblo; the Hayden Era Station in Routt County; the Pawnee Era Station in Morgan County; and Valmont.
The opposite websites in Colorado embrace: Colorado Springs Utilities’ Clear Spring Ranch Landfill, which holds waste from the Ray Nixon Energy Plant and the previous Martin Drake Energy Plant; Tri-State Era and Transmission Affiliation’s Nucla Ash Disposal Facility, which holds waste from its former Nucla Station in Montrose County and its Craig Station in Moffat County; and the Platte River Energy Authority’s Rawhide Vitality Station in Larimer County.
Earthjustice additionally reported there’s a coal-ash waste web site on the former Martin Drake Energy Plant in El Paso County, however there aren’t any accessible reporting paperwork on-line and efforts to succeed in Colorado Springs Utilities had been unsuccessful.
It’s also unknown whether or not there’s coal-ash waste related to the previous W.N. Clark Energy Plant in Fremont County, which was decommissioned in 2012.
Earthjustice lists three Colorado coal-ash websites among the many 50 most contaminated within the nation as a result of they’ve a number of pollution exceeding EPA requirements: Valmont is ranked thirty first; Tri-State’s retired Nucla station is thirty ninth; and Xcel’s Hayden Station is forty fourth.
Whereas it’s unclear precisely how a lot coal ash is buried in landfills and sitting in retention ponds throughout the state, a Denver Put up assessment of obtainable 2024 coal combustion residual inspection stories discovered greater than 30 million tons on the varied websites. No stories can be found for landfills that had been closed earlier than 2015.
Xcel’s seven websites include greater than 19 million tons of coal ash, based on inspection stories the corporate posted on-line. Nonetheless, not each Xcel disposal web site has an up to date report on the corporate’s coal-ash administration web site, partly due to the change in reporting guidelines for coal-ash websites. The Put up discovered on-line stories lacking for Arapahoe, Cameo, Cherokee and Pawnee’s north landfill websites.
Xcel declined to make its coal-ash managers accessible for interviews with The Put up. As a substitute, Aguayo, the corporate’s Colorado spokeswoman, despatched an emailed assertion and referred the newspaper to the corporate’s web site for any data on coal-ash administration.
“Defending our clients and the surroundings is a precedence, and we’ve a powerful file of environmental management,” Aguayo stated within the assertion. “We’re dedicated to responsibly managing impacts from our operations, together with from prior coal crops, like Valmont.”
Prior to now three years, Xcel has been cited twice by the EPA for failures to adjust to coal-ash rules.
Xcel’s Cherokee Producing Station transitioned to a natural-gas-fired energy plant in 2017 and closed 5 dumpsites, together with a retention pond, on the property. However closing a coal-ash disposal location doesn’t imply the coal ash is eliminated. Relatively, no extra waste is dumped there.
Xcel was fined $134,500 in September after lithium was found leaking from its Cherokee plant, identifiable by its red-and-white smokestack seen from north Denver. The EPA cited the corporate for failing to adequately put together groundwater monitoring stories, failing to fulfill groundwater monitoring efficiency requirements, failing to precisely characterize readings in groundwater high quality, and failing to make use of the best statistical strategies to investigate groundwater information, based on the company’s consent settlement.
Xcel agreed to right its missteps, based on the consent settlement between the corporate and the EPA.
The utility continues to be assessing how one can deal with the lithium plume, stated Lauren Whitney, a state well being division spokeswoman. Xcel is evaluating two options and can maintain a public assembly earlier than deciding on a technique and beginning work.
However that’s not the most important fantastic Xcel has paid for coal-ash violations.
In 2022, the EPA penalized the corporate for failing to adjust to rules on the disposal of coal ash and never correctly monitoring groundwater at its Comanche station in Pueblo. The corporate paid $1 million to settle with the federal authorities.
That web site is releasing cobalt into the groundwater.
Xcel has recognized the plume, examined the groundwater and is placing collectively a remediation technique, Whitney stated.
Between August 2024 and February, the remediation technique included injecting a remedy reagent into six injection wells utilizing an EPA-approved technique, Whitney stated. Wells close to the plume didn’t have cobalt ranges that exceeded the consuming water requirements.
In the meantime, Xcel continues to dump coal ash right into a landfill in Pueblo till the coal plant is decommissioned, no later than Dec. 31, 2030. As of 2024, about 4.9 million tons of coal ash are within the floor at Comanche, based on the newest inspection report.
Cleansing up Valmont
Valmont Station would be the first web site in Colorado the place Xcel plans to transform coal ash into Portland cement, an ingredient used to make concrete. And it’s the solely web site with such an enormous cleanup within the firm’s plans, Aguayo stated.
The corporate has contracted with Charah Options, a Kentucky-based firm that focuses on coal-ash administration and cleanup. Charah has employed Geocycle, an industrial waste administration firm, to assist with the challenge, Aguayo stated within the utility’s assertion.
Charah is anticipated to course of about 2 million tons of ash over 10 years to take away the hazardous waste.
Charah and Geocycle use a proprietary system to recycle the ash into cement. It includes a cell kiln that will be arrange on the Valmont property, and the businesses would use a baghouse — an industrial mud collector — to stop dangerous air emissions, Aguayo stated.
Charah will solely excavate the quantity of ash that its employees intend to course of in sooner or later to keep away from leaving extra ash on the bottom that would blow into the group at evening when the work stops, she stated. The gear is enclosed to handle mud, and the noise it makes is much like Valmont’s regular operations.
The cement created onsite shall be bought and used within the Denver market, Aguayo stated.
“This challenge offers large-scale environmental advantages by eliminating the necessity to mine new uncooked supplies for Portland cement and by eliminating the necessity for cross-regional transport of Portland cement and/or concrete to Denver’s native market,” her assertion stated.
Operations will run throughout daytime, seven days per week. Work will cease when wind gusts exceed 55 mph or sustained winds exceed 40 mph, based on the corporate’s engineering and design plan.
As soon as the ash is eliminated, the contractor will grade the world and put down clear soil and grass seed. Any ash that’s not appropriate for recycling shall be positioned in a particular space of the landfill, after which the landfill shall be closed.
Hayes, the air high quality supervisor at Boulder County Public Well being, stated he’s most involved about how a lot mud will move into the air as soon as the challenge begins. The engineering and design plan requires mud management techniques however lacks particulars.
“That’s what I’m actually ready to see are the controls we wish to see in that mud management plan,” Hayes stated. “The mud considerations from begin to end are when they’re excavating the landfill websites.”
Hayes hopes extra of these particulars shall be included within the firm’s air-pollution allow. He desires the state well being division to require steady air-quality monitoring on the web site, however thus far, the state has not agreed to think about it as soon as the air allow is filed.
“CDPHE says they’ve by no means required it in an air allow,” Hayes stated. “I stated, ‘Yeah, however we’ve by no means issued an air allow for a coal-ash landfill challenge.’ This can be a distinctive and novel challenge, and we simply don’t must go along with what we’ve executed previously.”
Hayes stated he’s not optimistic {that a} monitoring requirement shall be included within the air allow, so he’s trying to find outdoors funding to pay for it.
“In our present local weather, getting funding for air monitoring is proving to be just a little difficult,” he stated. “Federal grants that was once accessible for which can be dwindling and going away.”
However the air high quality drawback at a coal-ash landfill solely happens as soon as an organization begins excavating the fabric.
The extra vital drawback at most coal-ash waste websites is the groundwater contamination.
“It’s an enormous drawback. We’ve been burning coal because the early 1900s,” stated Evans, with Earthjustice. “The ash was not regulated till 2015, so billions of tons of coal ash have been dumped in pits and ponds and used as fill throughout the USA. Nearly each state had a coal-burning energy plant.”
For years, corporations had been allowed to dump the ash with out lining the landfills. Greater than 90% of coal-ash waste websites have contaminated groundwater above federal security requirements, she stated.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that everytime you dump coal ash, you’re going to get water contamination,” Evans stated.
On the Valmont Station, Xcel has monitored groundwater with a community of wells that the utility drilled within the space, stated Carl Job, a water high quality specialist with Boulder County Public Well being. These wells detected elevated ranges of lithium and selenium in a plume transferring north and east of the property, and the plume was transferring towards close by consuming water wells.
Xcel filed an ash landfill treatment choice report, which proposes a cleanup technique, in Might with the state well being division. The report stated two plumes had been creeping out of the landfill. The primary plume accommodates elevated concentrations of lithium and selenium, whereas the second plume exceeds lithium ranges mandated by the EPA.
“These plumes will not be adversely impacting consuming water within the space, and the groundwater will proceed to be monitored to make sure ongoing safety of human well being within the space till treatment completion,” the report acknowledged. “There are additionally no public consuming water provides within the neighborhood of the impacted groundwater.”
The contaminated plumes will not be a menace to most Boulder residents, who get their water from town system, Job stated. The true concern surrounds the few wells close by the place folks get their consuming water, which aren’t as regulated as public water techniques.
Just one effectively has proven larger ranges of lithium contamination, and Xcel is offering an alternate supply of water, stated Erin Dodge, Boulder County Public Well being’s water high quality program coordinator.
The plumes will not be impacting Boulder Creek or South Boulder Creek, she stated.
Groundwater remediation is continuing beneath a compliance order from the state, Whitney stated. Xcel has submitted a proposal for treating the groundwater, and it’s beneath assessment by the state and Boulder County. As soon as it’s authorised, Xcel will submit a design plan for the state well being division to assessment.
Xcel is proposing to make use of reverse osmosis, which is a confirmed technique for cleansing water. That system will extract groundwater by way of wells and assortment trenches and truck it off-site for remedy, the report stated.
The treatment choice report estimated it could take 15 to 35 years to deal with the groundwater.
In the meantime, there isn’t a different long-term plan for eradicating the hundreds of thousands of tons of coal ash buried in Colorado.
Some utilities, such because the Platte River Authority, promote some ash for helpful reuse. Platte River sells ash to architectural block producers and to liquid-waste disposal amenities, based on its firm web site.
Officers on the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Setting say they’re dedicated to creating certain coal ash doesn’t contaminate groundwater.
The state repeatedly screens coal-ash waste websites, stated Tracie White, director of the well being company’s hazardous waste division. And Valmont is of specific curiosity due to the scale of its ash reuse challenge.
“We’re dedicated to creating certain coal ash landfills in Colorado are protecting of human well being and the surroundings,” White stated. “At Valmont Station, our workforce is intently reviewing the proposed cleanup treatment to make sure it meets all state rules and prevents additional impacts to groundwater. We repeatedly monitor these websites to trace, hint, and deal with potential contamination, and we work in partnership with native communities all through the method.”
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