La Cygne Generating Station Bottom Ash Settling Pond

La Cygne Generating Station Bottom Ash Settling Pond is a coal ash disposal site associated with La Cygne Generating Station, owned and operated by Great Plains Energy subsidiary Kansas City Power & Light near La Cygne, Kansas.

Site data
Information below derived from EPA's Coal Ash Survey database; GPS coordinates courtesy of Earthjustice researchers.
 * Owner: 	Kansas City Power & Light
 * Parent company: 	Great Plains Energy
 * Associated coal plant: 	La Cygne Generating Station
 * Location: 	La Cygne, KS
 * GPS coordinates: 	38.3490, -94.6450
 * Hazard potential: 	None
 * Year commissioned: 	1977
 * Year(s) expanded: 	1979
 * Material(s) stored: 	Bottom ash
 * Professional Engineer (PE) designed?: 	No
 * PE constructed?: 	No
 * PE monitored?: 	No
 * Significant deficiencies identified: 	None
 * Corrective measures: 	None
 * Surface area (acres): 	2
 * Storage capacity (acre feet): 	1
 * Unit Height (feet): 	12
 * Historical releases: 	None
 * Additional notes:

Affiliated Coal Waste Site

 * La Cygne Generating Station Scrubber Sludge Pond

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.

La Cygne ranked 16th 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. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

La Cygne Generating Station ranked number 16 on the list, with 2,127,000 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

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
 * Existing coal waste sites in the United States
 * Kansas and coal
 * Kansas City Power & Light
 * Great Plains Energy