State regulators relax pollutants standards for TVA on Kingston plant

Tennessee’s environmental regulatory agency will allow the Tennessee Valley Authority to discharge more pollutants from its coal-fired Kingston power plant into the Clinch River under a modified permit approved last week.

The approval by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation follows 2020 standards enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration. Those standards rolled back stricter protections issued in 2015 for two of the power plant’s waste streams: flue gas desulfurization waste and bottom ash transport water waste. Both are byproducts of the process of burning coal to produce electricity.

The state released its decision to approve the modified permit one day after the public comment period closed. At least 60 comments were submitted in writing or during a public hearing, and all opposed the modification. Additionally, the Sierra Club submitted a letter asking the department to formalize a requirement that TVA cease coal combustion by Dec. 31, 2028. That letter included 198 signatures in support.

“Since day one of the Kingston Fossil Plant’s operations 66 years ago, TVA has dumped huge quantities of untreated toxic wastewater into the Clinch River, and this permit allows them to continue to do so — even though it’s clear that technology exists right now that would better protect our clean water,” said Amanda Garcia, Tennessee office director for the Southern Environmental Law Center, in a statement. “People near the Kingston Plant have already experienced the devastating impacts of pollution.”

TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said by email the utility is committed to following the rules for managing coal ash.

“TVA will continue to protect the Tennessee Valley’s natural resources and reliably comply with regulations, including this modified permit,” he said. “TVA is an industry leader in the management of coal ash, including the treatment of wastewaters for compliance with the EPA’s effluent limitation guidelines.”

The Southern Environmental Law Center, a clean environment advocacy group, is evaluating its options on the state’s permit decision, Garcia said.

The Kingston plant generates about 10 billion kilowatt-hours a year, or enough electricity to power about 700,000 homes, TVA said. The plant is on the Watts Bar Reservoir near Kingston, about 100 miles northeast of Chattanooga.

In December 2008, a dike on a Kingston coal ash storage facility gave way, spilling 7.3 million tons of the toxic waste over 300 acres in one of the nation’s largest environmental disasters.

STATE OF THE CLINCH

Electricity-generating plants like Kingston are required to have a national pollution discharge elimination systems permit. The permits regulate sources of pollution to bodies of water around the nation. The guidelines are set by the EPA but are distributed by state agencies such as the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, which seeks public comment when it considers changes to the rules.

Of the 85 comments shared by the Sierra Club, at least 43 raised concerns about protecting clean water. Some pointed to concerns over the 2008 spill and how the damage from that, plus the current discharges, may harm the river and the health of the community.

“What’s really important is to understand that sometimes chemicals are ubiquitous in the environment, sometimes they last a long time in the environment, whether that could be in the water, in the soil,” said Loren Lipworth, an epidemiology professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “So even after exposure may have potentially stopped, like a plant is shut down, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the exposures go away.”

Lipworth said the accumulation of pollutants in the river could also be due to previous industries. According to the state, the Clinch River’s segment of the Watts Bar Reservoir has been polluted with chlordane, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly called PCBs. The department said the chlordane is a “legacy pollutant” from historical pesticide use that can be found in the sediment.

There is also a fish consumption advisory for PCBs at the Watts Bar Reservoir, according to the state environment department’s August 2020 fish advisories.

In an email, the department said that the Watts Bar Reservoir is not harmed from current discharges from the Kingston plant, and the modified permit will not allow for the water quality to be compromised because the Clinch would not be receiving additional pollutants from the Kingston plant.

“If you assess the quality of discharges from the Kingston facility during the previous permit term and following this permit modification, there should be no measurable difference,” the email said.

Lipworth, however, said that even if discharges from the Kingston plant are not actively harming the river, they may be slowing down its recovery.

“At some point where they say that the water is already not at a level where they are deeming it safe to fish or to eat fish, continued pollution of the water is not going to solve the problem,” Lipworth said.

LOOKING AHEAD

The future of the 2020 Trump-era EPA rule is not clear. The EPA is set to release a new water-permit rule in fall 2022 for public comment after conducting a science-based review of the 2020 rule.

If changes are enacted, the state says it will change its standards accordingly.

“The division intends to implement any future changes, if applicable, through another modification of the [national pollution discharge elimination systems] permit,” the department’s email said.

The Department of Environment and Conservation also said there is a possibility of appealing the modification it just approved. In an email to commenters, the department said those who shared thoughts about the permit can petition for an appeal based on previous comments.