Environmental Impact Statement for Johnsonville Fossil Plant Ash Impoundment Closure, 62562-62563 [2019-24830]

Agencies

• Tennessee Valley Authority

[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 221 (Friday, November 15, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62562-62563]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-24830]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Environmental Impact Statement for Johnsonville Fossil Plant Ash 
Impoundment Closure

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 residuals (CCR) material at the Johnsonville Fossil Plant 
(JOF) located in Humphreys County, Tennessee. The purpose of this EIS 
is to address the disposition of Ash Pond 2 at JOF, 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 United States Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) CCR Rule and other applicable federal and state 
statutes and regulations. TVA will evaluate the closure of JOF Ash Pond 
2 and will develop and evaluate various alternatives for closure 
including the No Action Alternative. One alternative identified by TVA 
is Closure-in-Place of Ash Pond 2. Another alternative is Closure-by-
Removal of Ash Pond 2. TVA is considering four options for disposal of 
the CCR removed from Ash Pond 2, including transport and disposal of 
CCR in an existing offsite permitted landfill, transport and disposal 
of CCR to a new onsite landfill, transport and disposal of CCR to both 
an existing offsite permitted landfill and a new onsite landfill, and 
transport of CCR to a beneficial re-use processing facility to be 
processed for use in concrete and other building materials with any 
unusable CCR and excavated soil material going to an existing offsite 
or new onsite permitted landfill.
    TVA has identified a potential location for a new onsite landfill. 
TVA has not selected a potential offsite landfill for disposal of CCR 
from JOF, and no specific provider of the beneficiation services or 
specific site at which a beneficial re-use processing facility would be 
constructed has been developed at this time. Therefore, impacts of 
these options for CCR disposal would be based on the most impactful or 
``bounding'' characteristics of CCR transport to suitable existing 
landfills or to a beneficial re-use processing facility. Similarly, the 
potential effects of construction and operation of the beneficial re-
use processing facility will be evaluated using `bounding'' attributes 
obtained from candidate beneficiation vendors. Public comments are 
invited concerning both the scope of the review and environmental 
issues that should be addressed. No decisions have been made about the 
final disposition of CCR storage at COF Ash Pond 2.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the EIS must be received on or before 
December 20, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to W. Douglas White, NEPA 
Compliance Specialist, 400 W. Summit Hill Drive, WT 11B-K, Knoxville, 
TN 37902. 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 W. Douglas White, NEPA Compliance Specialist, Tennessee Valley 
Authority, at 865-632-2252 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.
    JOF had ten coal-fired generating units that had a combined 
capacity of 1,254 megawatts. Units 5 through 10 ceased power generation 
in 2012 and

[[Page 62563]]

were retired on December 31, 2015. Units 1 through 4 ceased operation 
and were retired on December 31, 2017. While in operation, JOF consumed 
approximately 3.5 million tons of coal per year and produced 
approximately 7,195 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. CCR 
produced as a by-product to burning coal by the collective units was 
wet-sluiced to Ash Pond 2. It is estimated that approximately 4.6 
million cubic yards (yd\3\) of CCR material remains in JOF Ash Pond 2.
    Historically, TVA has managed its CCR in wet impoundments or dry 
landfills. 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 JOF, which resulted in a recommendation to 
convert the wet ash management system at JOF to a dry storage system. 
On April 17, 2015, the EPA published the final Disposal of CCR 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. The PEIS can be found at www.tva.com/nepa. This EIS is intended to tier from the 2016 PEIS to evaluate the 
closure alternatives for the JOF Ash Pond 2.

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) Closure-in-Place of Ash Pond 2, (2) 
Closure-by-Removal of Ash Pond 2 to an Existing Offsite Landfill, (3) 
Closure-by-Removal of Ash Pond 2 to a New Onsite Landfill, (4) Closure-
by-Removal of Ash Pond 2 to an Existing Offsite and New Onsite 
Landfill, and (5) Closure-by-Removal of Ash Pond 2 to an Offsite 
Beneficial Re-use Processing Facility with unusable CCR and excavated 
soil material going to an existing offsite or new onsite permitted 
landfill.
    No decision has been made about the final disposition of CCR 
storage at JOF. TVA is preparing this EIS to inform decision makers, 
other agencies, and the public about the potential for environmental 
impacts associated with the final disposition of CCR at JOF Ash Pond 2.

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 and 
final disposition of CCR at JOF. Evaluation of potential environmental 
impacts to these resources will include, but not be limited to, air 
quality, climate change, water quality, groundwater, geology and soils, 
aquatic and terrestrial ecology, threatened and endangered species, 
wetlands, floodplains, land use, noise, transportation, visual 
resources, historic and archaeological resources, solid and hazardous 
waste, safety, socioeconomic and environmental justice issues, and 
natural areas, parks, and recreation. 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 committed to 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 provide a schedule 
for completing the EIS process. Following analysis of the affected 
resources, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and comment. 
A final decision on proceeding with the management and final disposal 
of CCR and closure of the Ash Pond 2 surface impoundment will be based 
on a number of factors including public comments, the conclusions of 
the EIS, the requirements of the CCR Rule, relevant state law 
requirements, engineering and risk evaluations, and financial 
considerations.
    TVA expects to release the Draft EIS in late 2020. TVA anticipates 
holding a community meeting near JOF after releasing the Draft EIS. 
Meeting details will be posted on TVA's website and advertised in local 
media.

    Authority:  40 CFR 1501.7.

M. Susan Smelley,
Director, Environmental Compliance and Operations.
[FR Doc. 2019-24830 Filed 11-14-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8120-08-P