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A pile of fly ash stored in an unlined landfill at the Indian River power plant is nearly 100 feat high and that is as high as it can get, state officials say.
A public hearing will be held Thursday, June 26, on a requested permit to build a new, lined landfill at the coal-burning power plant.
The unlined stack of ash will reach its height limit within a year, said Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Solid and Hazardous Waste engineer Jae-Soo Chang.
NRG Energy, the owner of the power plant, has asked state officials for a permit to construct a new, lined landfill adjacent to the unlined one at the Millsboro plant.
NRG officials were not available for comment.
Chang said the permit is for a lined landfill with a system to collect any material that leaches out between the fly ash and the bottom liner.
John Austin, a former Environmental Protection Agency scientist, requested the public hearing. He said industrial landfills are required to have a single liner with a collection system to stop contaminants leaching out. Hazardous waste landfills must have double liners, said Austin.
He said he is concerned ash will get into sediments, fish and shellfish. Coal combustion ash contains arsenic, a known human carcinogen, Austin said.
Austin also questions the state for allowing a landfill to be constructed within the coastal zone. The 100-year flood zone is seven feet, and the landfill site is 10 feet in elevation, he said.
The cooling water intake of the power plant has previously been the target of criticism. Three of the four units at the plant use once-through water-cooling systems, which are not considered the best technology available to protect fish. Hundreds of thousands of Inland Bays fish perish in the cooling systems each year, research conducted by NRG’s consultant has found.
Local environmentalists are also concerned about toxic substances getting into fish because people who consume contaminated fish and shellfish would have an increased risk of health problems.
Mercury and arsenic are among heavy metals resulting from coal combustion that can cause heart disease, cancer, miscarriages, infant deaths and asthma, said Rehoboth Beach naturopathic physician Kim Furtado.
Austin said arsenic has been found to have leached into groundwater already at the power plant site.
He said once the current landfill is closed and covered, fly ash will no longer be able to blow off the top of the stack, but contaminants can still wash into the groundwater.
The public hearing will be held at 6 p.m., Thursday, June 26, at the Millsboro Civic Center, 322 Wilson Highway, in Millsboro.
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