Conesville Power Plant Ash Pond Complex

Conesville Power Plant Ash Pond Complex is a coal ash disposal site associated with Conesville Power Plant, owned and operated by American Electric Power subsidiary Columbus Southern Power Company near Conesville, Ohio.

Site data
Information below derived from EPA's Coal Ash Survey database; GPS coordinates courtesy of Earthjustice researchers.
 * Owner: 	Columbus Southern Power Company
 * Parent company: 	American Electric Power
 * Associated coal plant: 	Conesville Power Plant
 * Location: 	Conesville, OH
 * GPS coordinates: 	40.1845, -81.8756
 * Hazard potential: 	Significant
 * Year commissioned: 	1972
 * Year(s) expanded:
 * Material(s) stored: 	Fly ash, Bottom ash, FGD
 * Professional Engineer (PE) designed?: 	No
 * PE constructed?: 	No
 * PE monitored?: 	Yes
 * Significant deficiencies identified:	None
 * Corrective measures: 	None
 * Surface area (acres): 	49
 * Storage capacity (acre feet): 	865
 * Unit Height (feet): 	35
 * Historical releases: 	None
 * Additional notes:

Coal waste in the United States
A January 2009 study by The New York Times following the enormous TVA coal ash spill found that there are more than 1,300 surface impoundments across the U.S. containing coal waste, with some sites as large as 1,500 acres. Also in January 2009, an Associated Press study found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to the one that ruptured at Kingston Fossil Plant. The states with the most storage in coal ash in ponds are Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama. The AP's analysis found that in 2005, 721 power plants generating at least 100 MW of electricity produced 95.8 million tons of coal ash, about 20 percent of which - or almost 20 million tons - ended up in surface ponds. The rest of the ash winds up in landfills or is sold for other uses. In June 2009, EPA released its list of 44 "high hazard potential" coal waste sites, which included 12 sites in North Carolina, 9 in Arizona, 6 in Kentucky, 6 in Ohio, and 4 in West Virginia. The full list is available here.

Conesville ranked 64th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste
In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

Conesville Power Plant ranked number 64 on the list, with 447,846 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Study finds dangerous level of hexavalent chromium at Conesville waste site
A report released by EarthJustice and the Sierra Club in early February 2011 stated that there are many health threats associated with a toxic cancer-causing chemical found in coal ash waste called hexavalent chromium. The report specifically cited 29 sites in 17 states where the contamination was found. The information was gathered from existing EPA data on coal ash and included locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virgina and Wisconsin. In Ohio, the Conesville Power Plant in Coshocon County and Industrial Excess Landfill in Uniontown were reported as having high levels of chromium seeping into groundwater.

According to the report, the Conesville Power Plant coal ash site is a landfill. Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) was reported at the site at 100 ppb (parts per billion) - 5,000 times the proposed California drinking water goals and above the federal drinking water standard.

As a press release about the report read:


 * Hexavalent chromium first made headlines after Erin Brockovich sued Pacific Gas & Electric because of poisoned drinking water from hexavalent chromium. Now new information indicates that the chemical has readily leaked from coal ash sites across the U.S. This is likely the tip of the iceberg because most coal ash dump sites are not adequately monitored.

According to the report, the electric power industry is the leading source of chromium and chromium compounds released into the environment, representing 24 percent of releases by all industries in 2009.

Citizen groups

 * Center for Public Integrity
 * Earthjustice
 * Energy Justice Network
 * Environmental Integrity Project
 * NRDC
 * Organic Consumers Association
 * Sludge Safety Project
 * Sierra Club

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Coal waste
 * Ohio and coal
 * Columbus Southern Power Company
 * American Electric Power