Public Meeting for the Roane Community Advisory Group

The Roane County Community Advisory Group (RC CAG) will be holding their first public meeting on December 14th, 2009 @ Roane State Community College.

The meeting will start with a meet and greet with the interim Technical Advisor and CAG members at 6:00 with the meeting starting at 6:30 PM.

The meeting will cover issues with the Engineering Evaluation Cost Analysis (EE/CA) Work Plan and the Community Involvment Plan (CIP). These two documents are out for Public Comment until December 20, 2009.

This is a chance for your voice to be heard.

Swan Pond Community Press Conference

SWAN POND RESIDENTS PRESS CONFERENCE
THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE TVA COAL ASH SPILL


The Swan Pond Community residents would like to meet with the members of the press to express the past, present and the future direction they would like to see the Swan Pond Community take. The residents of the Swan Pond Community were the first to be affected by the ash spill on 12/22/08 and continue to be affected to this day.


When: Saturday December 19, 2009
Where: 993 Swan Pond Rd Harriman, TN (behind the Swan Pond Baptist Church)
Time: 2 PM eastern

Background Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill

Comments for TDH Public Health Assessment

The PHA (Public Comment Draft) for the Kingston Ash Spill is now available on the web for download.

http://health.state.tn.us/coalashspill.htm

You may submit comments by email at: EEP.Health@tn.gov

Public participation is encouraged please forward to those you feel would be interested. The public comment period will last until February 9, 2010.

Many thanks for your interest and input.

BP





Brad Parman
Environmental Epidemiologist
East TN Regional Health Office
1522 Cherokee Trail
Knoxville, TN 37920
Front Desk: 865-546-9221
Phone: 865-549-5234
Fax: 865-594-5738

Dec. 10

Update on Kingston Site Activities

December 10, 2009



New Rail Spurs

New railroad spurs will be installed south of Swan Pond Road and closer to the Kingston Fossil Plant, which will allow the switching to take place away from the road itself. Currently, there are about 25 rail crossings on Swan Pond each day that cause traffic delays for local residents and workers at the Kingston plant and site recovery areas. The new spurs will reduce the temporary blockages on Swan Pond Road. TVA officials studied various options to help alleviate the railroad crossing problems, including building an overpass near the recovery site. The time it would take to construct such an overpass, along with the cost, made that project unfeasible. The new rail spurs are much more cost effective and can be completed by the end of January 2010.



”Curfew” times, in which train crossings are prohibited on Swan Pond Road, will be strictly enforced by the management staff at the recovery site. The current curfew times are:

6:30 – 7:15 a.m.

3:30 – 4:15 p.m.

5:00 – 5:30 p.m.

These times will be reviewed and any changes will be communicated.



Drying Systems

New ash drying systems will be installed at the Site to expedite the removal of fly ash. The benefit to the drying systems is that the sooner moisture can be removed from the stockpiled ash that has been removed from the river, the sooner it can be transported to the Perry County, Alabama, landfill.



The first system to be installed will be a filter press system. A filter press reduces the volume and weight of a slurry waste by separating liquid from the solid. The liquid passes through filter cloths and exits the press leaving behind the filtered solids, called a filter cake. After the desired moisture content is achieved, the press is opened and the filter cake is released.



The second system will be a Genesis Rapid Dewatering System. The system works in stages. First, the ash material passes through a course debris screen, which eliminates and disposes of large objects such as rocks and debris. The next step uses centrifugal force to spin the solids away as the water drains down. Then a computer monitors the changes in the density and flow and injects polymers at various points to produce larger masses of the solids. The rapid dewatering system then captures the fine grain sediments and recovers the water.



Having these new systems will greatly increase our ability to process the fly ash and prepare it for transport to the landfill in Alabama.



Residents in the immediate area as well as plant and site workers can expect a temporary increase in large transport trucks which will be bringing in the filtration and drying equipment, as well as materials to construct the rail spurs. This will begin as early as Friday, December 11 and should last just a few weeks.



Dike C Buttressing Update

Dike C buttressing has begun. Materials needed for this project will come in by truck from the local quarry and from a quarry outside of Roane County. Currently, 46 loads a day will be brought in, half from each quarry. The quarry from outside of Roane County will transport materials in via the interstate and up Swan Pond Road. The local quarry trucks will turn right off of Quarry Road and come onto Swan Pond Road from the North.



Rain Event on December 8

On the day of the high flow event TVA collected a river sample near the Kingston water plant intake. This is in addition to the daily raw water and finished water samples taken by the plant. We contacted the plant operator and he stated he had not noticed any changes in the output from the plant treatment processes.



Excavator

It was pulled out of the river today – there were some delays due to weather and other issues. It will be washed and the plan is to transport it to the south dock for removal on Friday.



Let me know if you have questions.



Katie





Katie Bell Kline

Senior Manager, Community Relations

Tennessee Valley Authority

Heavy Equipment Buried in Emory to be Removed

Kingston Site Activity Update:

1. When the ash spill occurred last December, a TVA excavator (large piece of equipment) was pushed into the river. We are now at a point that in order for dredging operations to proceed without delay, the excavator must be removed.

We will begin this removal process on Thursday, December 3, and it could take as long as a week to complete. The plan for removal begins by putting a barge-mounted crane in place at the Site. A dive team will be on-hand to perform all underwater rigging. They will rig the crane equipment to the proper points on the excavator. The crane will then lift the excavator from the water, and crews will thoroughly wash the excavator before placing it onto the barge. The barge will then take it to the south dock at the Kingston Fossil Plant where it will be offloaded onto a flatbed truck for transport to TVA’s Watts Bar Plant.

Turbidity curtains will surround the work area to control turbidity issues during work operations. A spill boom will be used in the event of any fluid leakage during excavator removal.

All personnel, vehicles and equipment are subject to decontamination requirements as required by the Site Health and Safety Plan prior to leaving the Site.

2. You may see this…TVA Police will be escorting a barge through the work area in the next day or so. The barge will be hauling materials used to build a dock for a near-by resident.

3. A Report to our Roane County Neighbors is in print and will be mailed soon. The information contained in this report is information you all have. It is intended to update those who have not been involved in what’s happening at the Site.

Please let me know if you have questions and if not, we’ll see you Thursday night.

Katie

Katie Bell Kline
Senior Manager, Community Relations
Tennessee Valley Authority

Boiler Maintenence Completed 11-28-09

As part of our continuing commitment to keep you informed about the plant maintenance this past week, we want to let you know we completed the boiler maintenance successfully.

Once we confirmed that the particulate found in the plant parking lot on Wednesday was iron oxide (rust), and after cleaniing the ductwork again, we made a decision to use the scrubber stack in order to complete the work.

The boilers were fired beginning Friday about noon and the work was completed early Saturday morning. We kept a close eye on the scrubber stack and everything went well. There was no particulate emission from the stack. We appreciate your patience and will continue to communicate workthat is being done to operate the plant and carry out the ash spill recovery.

Katie Kline

Official to the CAG from TVA

To members of the CAG,

Kingston Fossil Plant plans to continue maintenance work on units 6 – 9 this Friday, November 27, in order to bring units back into normal operations in the near future.

As winter weather sets in, cold temperatures can have a negative effect on plant equipment. To maintain equipment in the best working order, units are running water through the boiler tubes and heating them by burning oil. Because TVA will also perform some testing on its scrubber, the new scrubber stack will be used and a plume will be visible.

TVA found some particulate material in the plant parking lot after operating the units to perform maintenance activities on Tuesday, Nov. 24. To minimize any releases of particulates, TVA is inspecting and cleaning ductwork and fans on the units.

TVA is analyzing samples of the material found in the plant parking lot and expects to know the composition this week.

As we continue this work and return the plant to normal operations, we will ensure the public is informed.

Please let me know if you have questions. Thanks,

Katie Kline

TVA Rust Rains on Worker's Vehicles

To the CAG,

As we emailed you yesterday, TVA began performing maintenance activities today on four of the nine units at the Kingston Fossil Plant. Part of this maintenance, which is designed to maintain units that have not been in service, is filling water-carrying tubes in the boilers with water, heating the water with fuel oil, and then draining the water out of the tubes. This helps minimize rusting.

This afternoon at 3:15pm, an employee reported that a rust-colored material was found on employees’ cars in the parking lot next to the plant lobby. At the time, we had oil fire in two units. We shut down the oil fires and the fans in the units. We took samples of the material and sent them to a lab for analysis. We inspected areas on-site and off-site to determine how far the material traveled, and it appears to have been contained to the main parking lot area for the plant. TVA has notified TDEC of this issue.

Again, we have shut down the oil fires and fans, and will not continue this maintenance work until we have investigated this incident. As soon as we have more information, we will share it with you.

Thank you,

Gretchen

__________________

Gretchen Wahl

Jacobs

Senior Communications Specialist

Report of Activities on the Kingston Site November 23, 2009

We’ll be sharing the information below with elected officials and the media today, and we’ll go door-to-door with this information in the neighborhood near the plant on Swan Pond Road.

Kingston Boiler Maintenance on Units 6-9 will Take Place

TVA will be performing specific maintenance activities on the remaining four of the nine Kingston units on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 24 & 25. Much like November 17, TVA needs to maintain the condition of the units at Kingston that have not been in service. These maintenance activities will cause smoke to be emitted out of the South stack (stack 2).

The smoke is primarily carbon, but will also contain some nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. TVA will continue to meet all state air quality requirements.

TVA’s air quality permits, issued by the state of Tennessee, allow for the plant to perform this type of maintenance on the plant. Kingston will constantly monitor the stack emissions during this activity. Below is information about how it works that was sent out earlier, but it’s a good reminder.

How it works

In order to help ensure the units perform better when they do come back into service, plant staff will perform several activities. One activity involves filling the water-carrying tubes in the boilers with water, heating the water and then draining the water out of the tubes. This helps minimize rusting.

In order to heat the water in the boiler tubes, the plant will burn fuel oil. This burning of fuel oil is what will cause the gray to black plume of smoke to be discharged from the north stack for a period of about eight hours each day. It is similar to the smoke from an oil lamp, only on a larger scale, as has been seen many times in the past when the Kingston units started operation.

The plant will not be generating power, and coal will not be burned during this activity. There may be additional maintenance of this kind with all of the boilers prior to any scrubber or unit start up.


Storm Water Retention Pond Work

During routine checks for start-up of the Kingston scrubber, TVA personnel observed fluctuating water levels in the storm water retention pond, which is adjacent to the gypsum storage area. This is being investigated.

TVA has drained the retention pond and we will continue to investigate the cause. If we determine corrective actions are necessary, we will take the appropriate steps. However, while the pond is drained, TVA has decided to install a synthetic liner on top of the clay liner, pending approval.

Kingston scrubber start up tests and associated discharges into the gypsum storage area will continue in preparation for full system start up at a later date, which will be communicated in advance. No discharge from the storage area to the storm water pond will be allowed until all work is complete. As we receive more information, we will share it with you.

Ash Recovery Site Shutting Down for Thanksgiving

Other than some onsite dredging, the Kingston Ash Recovery Site will be shut down for the Thanksgiving holidays beginning Wednesday evening, November 25, at 7 p.m. Work will resume as normal on Monday morning, November 30. This will provide relief to the road closing due to train crossings.

Katie Bell Kline

Senior Manager, Community Relations

Tennessee Valley Authority

East Embayment Update

As part of the revised work plan for time-critical ash removal from the East Embayment, TVA will be moving fish from the Embayment to the Emory River beginning Monday, November 23.



A significant number of fish and some turtles are believed to live in the East Embayment. These fish will be electro-shocked (this is a standard practice for moving fish) and then the fish and turtles will be relocated to the Emory River.



Then, clean water will be pumped directly to the Emory River starting the week of November 30. Water in contact with ash will be redirected to the onsite settling basins. When the water level in the embayment has been drawn down, there will be another round of electro-shocking in order to relocate any fish that may remain. Also, any remaining turtles will also be relocated at this time. It may be necessary to recover some of these animals on foot. This work is slated for December 3 or 4, but depending on weather, this could go into the next week.



After the above steps are complete, time critical ash removal from the East Embayment will begin.



Katie Bell Kline

Senior Manager, Community Relations

Tennessee Valley Authority

865-717-1668

Harriman Quarry to enclose Crusher to reduce noise

In response to questions about quarry work, TVA received this answer from the Harriman Quarry last week.

November 11, 2009

Linda Pratt

Tennessee Valley Authority

Linda,

The Roane County quarry did not crush during the month of October. They started back Monday November 2^nd with a shift running at night. The purpose of running at night is to allow the crew to do their maintenance work during the daylight hours.

They are currently making several changes at the quarry. They are in the process of enclosing the crushing plant in order to drastically reduce the noise of crushing. In addition they are replacing the back up alarms with strobe lights on all the equipment on the yard so there will no longer be warning beeps when a piece of equipment is backing up.

This schedule was developed as part of the normal operating plan and does not have anything to do with TVA. They plan to continue this schedule for the foreseeable future.

Let me know if you have any questions or need further information.

Thanks, Bill

11-13-09

On Tuesday, November 17, the Kingston Fossil Plant will be performing maintenance on some of the units at the plant that are not being used right now. The units are not going to be started up, but smoke will be coming out of the stack for about 16 hours. The fact sheet below explains the procedure. We’re sending this information to elected officials and the media today, and we’ll go door-to-door with this information in the neighborhood near the plant on Monday.

Thanks for your interest in the plant, and please call me at (865) 202-7479 if you have any questions.

Gretchen

Kingston Boiler Maintenance Fact Sheet

November 2009

TVA power system demand is low, and all of the units from the Kingston Plant are not needed right now. In order to maintain the condition of the units at Kingston that are not needed, Kingston Plant will perform specific maintenance activities on four of the nine units on November 17.

These maintenance activities will cause smoke to be emitted out of the north stack (stack 1) for a period of about 16 hours.

The smoke is primarily carbon, but will also contain some nitrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. TVA will continue to meet all state air quality requirements.

TVA’s air quality permits, issued by the state of Tennessee, allow for the plant to perform this type of maintenance on the plant. Kingston will constantly monitor the stack emissions during this activity.

How it works

In order to help ensure the units perform better when they do come back into service, plant staff will perform several activities. One activity involves filling the water-carrying tubes in the boilers with water, heating the water and then draining the water out of the tubes. This helps minimize rusting.

In order to heat the water in the boiler tubes, the plant will burn fuel oil. This burning of fuel oil is what will cause the gray to black plume of smoke to be discharged from the north stack for a period of about 16 hours. It is similar to the smoke from an oil lamp, only on a larger scale, as has been seen many times in the past when the Kingston units started operation.

The plant will not be generating power, and coal will not be burned during this activity.

The plant may perform these activities to preserve the other boilers in the future, and the public will be made aware of this beforehand.

Updated Kingston Fossil Plant Scrubber Information November 9, 2009

To Roane County Community Advisory Group Members:

The schedule for bringing the first scrubber online at Kingston has changed. Instead of starting it up on Friday, November 13, it will be delayed for a short period of time. There are a couple of reasons for this delay.

1. TVA power system demand is low and the power from the Kingston Plant is not needed right now. Due to the economic conditions, lower cost generating assets, mild weather and increased hydro generation, there are multiple coal-fired generating units off-line throughout the TVA system.

2. On the Ash Recovery Site, we continue to remove material from the Emory River faster than we are able to dry it and ship it off site. Increased ash production from the plant would further impact this situation.

TVA’s primary focus at Kingston is the removal of ash from the Emory River as quickly as possible. Given this priority, coupled with low system load demand, the decision has been made to delay the startup of generating units and, consequently, the first scrubber.

Until the scrubber comes online, equipment testing will continue on an almost daily basis as pumps, fans and other types of equipment are run. These tests, like previous tests, will create a water vapor emission from the stacks, but we want to make sure you know that these are just tests, and that no units are connected to the scrubber.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Thanks,

Katie

Katie (Bell) Kline

Senior Manager, Community Relations

Tennessee Valley Authority

400 W. Summit Hill Dr., WT 7D

Knoxville, TN 37902

865-717-1668

Scrubbers to be tested tomorrow

Update for Community Advisory Group About Kingston Fossil Plant

Scrubber Equipment Testing

October 28, 2009

Consistent with the information we provided you on October 19, the process of bringing the Kingston Fossil Plant scrubber unit online is continuing. As an update, tomorrow, the plant will be running pumps which will circulate water within the scrubber. Water from a one-million gallon tank will run through sprays and fountains, including a bed of 1700 fountains that shoot water 20 feet high.

Again, if the air is cool, the warmer water coming into contact with the cooler air will create a water vapor inside the scrubber that will likely exit the unit through the stacks. This water condensation is like the steamy water vapor that comes off the surface of the river when the air temperature cools below the water temperature.

There are still no furnaces operating and no coal is being burned. No flue gas has passed through the scrubber, and nothing will exit the stack other than water vapor. The scrubber has not started up; this is still scheduled for mid- to late November.

Equipment testing will continue until the scrubber starts up. You may see this vapor again, but we want you to know it is only water vapor.

We will give you plenty of notification prior to the scrubber going into service.

As always, let me know if you have questions. Thanks,

Katie

Katie (Bell) Kline

Senior Manager, Community Relations

Tennessee Valley Authority

Tennessean Article on EPA Final Report

Coal ash poses significant risk: EPA report says

The Tennessean article.

Barge Maintenance Involves Lead Paint Removal

The Recovery Site will be doing maintenance work on a barge tomorrow. The barge is docked at the South boat ramp near the plant discharge channel. Part of the work includes scraping some lead paint off one side of the barge in order to weld handrails onto it. This work will be done in accordance with requirements for lead-based paint which includes capturing the paint chips and use of appropriate clothing worn by the workers (could see Tyvek suits).



I just want you to know what you might see is typical of what is done when dealing with lead-based paint (such as you might see when a highway bridge is being re-painted).



Katie (Bell) Kline

Senior Manager, Community Relations

Tennessee Valley Authority

400 W. Summit Hill Dr., WT 7D

Knoxville, TN 37902

TVA Bidding Swan Pond Road Work

To Members of the CAG,

I want to let you know that TVA is in the process of bidding the work for replacing the City of Kingston and HUB water, gas and effluent lines that were affected by the spill. The repairs will take place along Swan Pond Road from Highway 70 past the plant and on parts of Hassler Mill Road. This work should begin in early December. Once we award the work, the contractor is required to give us an overall schedule. Within the contract specs we included a requirement for the contractor to minimize any impact to traffic flow. In addition, they will give us at least a week’s advance notice about any work that will affect the road, which we will pass on to you.

We will keep you up to date as we get more information during the bid and award process. We have directed the contractor to include in their bid an expedited restoration of that segment of the 10” Kingston Utility Board line which will improve the water pressure. If you have any questions or want to know more about this, we’ll do our best to provide them. We may not know the answers right now, but we’ll get them to you as soon as we have them.

Site Tour Report

From CAG Member Andy Avel:

I toured the site yesterday with Mike Scott and am passing on the following observations:

1. The trains should have resumed yesterday because the site is now using the additive that Steve McCracken told us about last Thursday. The additive that absorbs any free water that may migrate from the fly ash on its journey to Alabama. So, trains should have started moving yesterday.

2. Mike talked about the vapor from the new scrubber stack and told me that the closer the plant gets to actual operation, the more testing of the system (using material that does not originate from the combustion of coal) will be done, and the more common the emission of water vapor will be. He did emphasize that the scrubbers are not connected to the combustion process, yet.

3. The 20 inch dredge is broken down and will be soon be replaced by another 20 inch dredge. The replacement dredge is sitting on the Clinch River across the channel from the Red Bone restaurant while the site is doing final safety and environmental inspections.

4. The Plant entrance and exit to the site exclusion zone, located close to the new scrubbers, is being improved to allow access to the exclusion zone for service and maintenance equipment. This will help alleviate traffic congestion on Swan Pond Road.

5. The height of the ash piles on the ball field is increasing because of improved dredging. However, limitations in the ability to move fly ash off site is causing more fly ash to accumulate on the site. The accumulation of the fly ash is being monitored carefully by both TVA and EPA to assure no problems arise. The additive to absorb water from the ash in the trains, will help to accelerate the transportation of the ash off site.

6. TVA is continuing to widen the ash drainage ditches to improve drainage in the failed dredge cell and the embayment and is cleaning out the settling pond.

7. I also visited the proposed visitor overlook. It will be located about 500 yards up the "driveway" that used to go to the house that was located in that area. The overlook will consist of a parking lot, a roofed area, and placards that identify areas of interest at the site. It looked to me like most of the excavation work was done.
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Information 10-21-09

Two new documents have been added to the Administrative Record, and a public comment period on both documents begins today and runs through November 20:

The Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) Work Plan describes the process TVA will use to evaluate removal action alternatives at the site. Those alternatives will be explained in detail in the EE/CA Report, and further public comment will be solicited at that time.

The Draft Community Involvement Plan (CIP) specifies outreach activities TVA will use to address community concerns and expectations. It also explains the opportunities for public involvement in the decision-making process at the site.

The details on the public comment period can be found here: http://www.tva.com/kingston/admin_record/public_comment.htm

Also, TVA has released to TDEC and posted on the Kingston website the event analysis report for the release of material from the Kingston Fossil Plant stack on September 18, 2009. The report details the event and includes photos and a timeline of the incident as well as root cause analysis information and actions being taken to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Here is the link: http://www.tva.com/kingston/pdf/kingston_deposition_incident.pdf.