Environmental Impact Statement for Allen Fossil Plant Ash Impoundment Closures, 61708-61709 [2018-25914]

Agencies

• Tennessee Valley Authority

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 231 (Friday, November 30, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61708-61709]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-25914]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Environmental Impact Statement for Allen Fossil Plant Ash 
Impoundment Closures

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) intends to prepare an 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to address the potential 
environmental effects associated with the future management of coal 
combustion residual (CCR) material at the Allen Fossil Plant (ALF) 
located in Shelby County, Tennessee, southwest of the City of Memphis. 
The purpose of this EIS is to support the implementation of TVA's goal 
to eliminate all wet CCR storage at its coal plants by closing CCR 
surface impoundments across the TVA system, and to assist TVA in 
complying with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) CCR Rule. In 
addition, the proposed actions would make the ALF closure area land 
available for future economic development projects in the greater 
Memphis area.
    TVA will evaluate closure of the East Ash Pond Complex, the West 
Ash Pond, and the Metal Cleaning Pond. In addition to these closures, 
TVA will analyze potential location requirements and associated 
environmental impacts associated with construction and utilization of a 
proposed beneficial re-use facility to process CCR materials. TVA will 
also evaluate potential impacts associated with actions requiring use 
of permitted borrow sites and the disposal of CCR at existing offsite 
permitted landfills. TVA will develop and evaluate various alternatives 
to these actions, including the No Action Alternative. Public comments 
are invited concerning both the scope of the review and environmental 
issues that should be addressed.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the EIS must be received on or before 
January 4, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Ashley Farless, NEPA 
Compliance Specialist, 1101 Market Street, BR4A-C, Chattanooga, TN 
37402. Comments also may be submitted online at: https://www.tva.gov/nepa or by email to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Other related questions should be sent 
to Ashley Farless, NEPA Compliance Specialist, Tennessee Valley 
Authority, at 423-751-2361 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is provided in accordance with 
the Council on Environmental Quality's regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 
to 1508) and TVA's procedures for implementing the National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Section 106 of the National 
Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and its implementing regulations (36 
CFR part 800).

TVA Power System and CCR Management

    TVA is a corporate agency and instrumentality of the United States 
created by and existing pursuant to the TVA Act of 1933 that provides 
electricity for business customers and local power distributors. TVA 
serves more than 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern 
states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its 
revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and 
investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood 
control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system 
and assists local power companies and state and local governments with 
economic development and job creation.
    Historically, TVA has managed its CCRs in wet impoundments or dry 
landfills. On March 31, 2018, ALF's three coal-fired units were 
retired. While in operation, ALF consumed approximately 7,200 tons of 
coal a day and produced approximately 5,160 million kilowatt-hours of 
electricity a year. CCR produced by the collective units included 
approximately 85,000 dry tons of slag and fly ash that was wet-sluiced 
to the East Ash Pond Complex every year.
    It is estimated that approximately 250,000 cubic yards (yd\3\) of 
CCR material remains in the West Ash Pond and approximately 2.7 million 
cubic yards (yd\3\) of CCR material remains in the East Ash Pond 
Complex. There are approximately 193,000 cubic yards of CCR in the area 
surrounding the Metal Cleaning Pond.
    In July 2009, the TVA Board of Directors passed a resolution for 
staff to review TVA practices for storing CCRs at its generating 
facilities, including ALF, which resulted in a recommendation to 
convert the wet ash management system at ALF to a dry storage system. 
On April 17, 2015, the EPA published the final Disposal of CCRs from 
Electric Utilities rule, also known as the CCR Rule.
    In June 2016, TVA issued a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact 
Statement (PEIS) that analyzed methods for closing CCR impoundments at 
TVA fossil plants and identified specific screening and evaluation 
factors to help frame its evaluation of closures at its other 
facilities. A Record of Decision was released in July 2016 that would 
allow future environmental reviews of qualifying CCR impoundment 
closures to tier from the PEIS. This EIS is intended to tier from the 
2016 PEIS to evaluate the closure alternatives for the CCR Ash 
Impoundments at ALF.

Alternatives

    In addition to a No Action Alternative, this EIS will address 
alternatives that meet the purpose and need for the project. TVA plans 
to consider the following: (1) No Action, (2) closure of the Metal 
Cleaning Pond and closure-by-removal of the East Ash Pond Complex, the 
West Ash Pond and the CCR surrounding the Metal Cleaning Pond to an 
offsite landfill location (note that the Metal Cleaning Pond would be 
removed by default while removing the CCR material surrounding it), (3) 
closure of the Metal Cleaning Pond and closure-by-removal of the East 
Ash Pond Complex, the West Ash Pond and the CCR surrounding the Metal 
Cleaning Pond to a beneficial re-use facility & offsite landfill 
location (see note above in #2), and (4) closure of the Metal Cleaning 
Pond and closure-in-place of all CCR in the East Ash Pond Complex, the 
West Ash Pond and CCR surrounding the Metal Cleaning Pond.

Proposed Resources and Issues To Be Considered

    This EIS will identify the purpose and need of the project and will 
contain descriptions of the existing environmental and socioeconomic 
resources within the area that could be affected by the management of 
CCR at ALF. Evaluation of potential environmental impacts to these 
resources will include, but not be limited to, water quality, aquatic 
and terrestrial ecology, threatened and endangered species, wetlands, 
land use, historic and archaeological resources, as well as solid and 
hazardous waste,

[[Page 61709]]

safety, socioeconomic and environmental justice issues. The final range 
of issues to be addressed in the environmental review will be 
determined, in part, from scoping comments received. The preliminary 
identification of reasonable alternatives and environmental issues in 
this notice is not meant to be exhaustive or final.

Public Participation

    TVA is interested in an open process and wants input from the 
community. The public is invited to submit comments on the scope of 
this EIS no later than the date identified in the ``Dates'' section of 
this notice. Federal, state and local agencies and Native American 
Tribes are also invited to provide comments.
    After consideration of comments received during the scoping period, 
TVA will develop and distribute a scoping document that will summarize 
public and agency comments that were received and identify the schedule 
for completing the EIS process. Following analysis of the issues, TVA 
will prepare a draft EIS for public review and comment. In making its 
final decision, TVA will consider the analyses in this EIS and 
substantive comments that it receives. A final decision on proceeding 
with the management and final disposal of CCR and closure of the 
surface impoundments will depend on a number of factors. These include 
results of the EIS, requirements of the CCR Rule, relevant state law 
requirements, engineering and risk evaluations, and financial 
considerations.
    TVA anticipates holding a community meeting near ALF after 
releasing the Draft EIS. Meeting details will be posted on TVA's 
website. TVA expects to release the Draft EIS in the Fall of 2019.

    Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7.

M. Susan Smelley,
Director, Environmental Compliance and Operations.
[FR Doc. 2018-25914 Filed 11-29-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P