Coal ash at the Chesterfield Power Station. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch
A year ago, Virginians couldn’t open up a newspaper without reading about Dominion Energy’s coal ash controversy. Then the issue disappeared from view. Months passed without news of any kind. Then earlier this week, I noticed a stray phrase in Dominion’s 2nd quarter 2018 financial results: The company had written off $81 million to reflect the cost of closing its coal ash ponds at its Bremo, Possum Point, Chesterfield and Chesapeake power stations.
Wondering if Dominion had written off coal ash-closure expenses in previous quarters, I contacted Dominion spokesman C. Ryan Frazier. He confirmed that the company had made three previous write-offs, bringing the total this quarter to $377 million so far.
The write-offs reflect the cost of two things mainly: (1) treating and draining the coal ash ponds of water, and (2) consolidating the ash at each power station in a single containment basin. Dominion’s preferred plan has been to cap those basins with an impermeable synthetic liner covered by vegetation. However, environmental groups and neighbors fear that groundwater will migrate through the coal ash, pick up heavy metals and leak into public waters.
In April 2017, the General Assembly passed a law ordering the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality VDEQ not to issue solid waste permits for closure of the coal ash ponds until Dominion had conducted an assessment of closure alternatives. Depending on the option chosen, concluded the report written by Dominion’s consultants, landfilling the coal ash could cost between $1 billion and $3 billion. Environmental groups argued that Dominion had significantly overstated the costs and had not given serious consideration to recycling the combustion residue into concrete and other products.
In April Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation into law extending the permit moratorium until July 2019. The law, says Frazier, requires Virginia Power to compile by November 2018 “information from third parties on the suitability, cost and market demand for beneficiation or recycling of coal ash from these units.”
So, there you have it, folks. The coal ash fracas now can safely fade from view again for another three or four months.
