This site will post communications directed to the Roane Community Advisory Group (CAG) as they are received in order to keep the community affected by the TVA ash dike failure fully informed.

General information regarding the CAG and relevant public documents are posted at the CAG website.

Monday, November 30, 2009

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

Saturday, November 28, 2009

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

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

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

Monday, November 23, 2009

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

Friday, November 20, 2009

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

Monday, November 16, 2009

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 2nd 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

Friday, November 13, 2009

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.

Monday, November 9, 2009

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