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GAO-10-85R 1 (2009-10-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanpw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~G A 0 . .. ournta bilty I Integrity * Reliabiity United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 October 30, 2009 The Honorable Barbara Boxer Chairman Committee on Environment and Public Works United States Senate The Honorable Edolphus Towns Chairman Committee on Oversight and Government Reform House of Representatives Subject: Coal Combustion Residue: Status of EPA's Efforts to Regulate Disposal On December 22, 2008, a breach in a surface impoundment (or storage pond) dike at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee resulted in the release of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash-also referred to as coal combustion residue (CCR)- into the nearby Emory River. The spill covered more than 300 acres and made 3 homes uninhabitable; it damaged 23 other homes, plus roads, rail lines, and utilities. TVA estimated the cleanup will cost between $933 million and $1.2 billion and take 2 to 3 years to complete. In light of the spill in Kingston, you asked us to identify: (1) the number of surface impoundments for storing CCR in the United States and their location; (2) problems, if any, with the storage of coal ash, and how those problems are being addressed; and (3) the type of federal oversight that exists for CCR and what, if any, issues need to be resolved. We briefed your staffs on October 1, 2009, and September 28, 2009, respectively, on the results of this work. This report summarizes and transmits that briefing. The full briefing is reprinted in the enclosure. To respond to your request, we obtained and reviewed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policy and program documents. We also interviewed senior officials from EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and Office of Water and collected statistics compiled by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. To obtain perspective on the oversight that exists for CCR, we gathered and analyzed documents and opinions from industry and state representatives and environmental groups. To understand coal power plant activities and surface impoundments, we obtained and analyzed documentation from TVA senior officials on TVA facilities, visited TVA's Bull Run facility to observe a coal-fired plant in operation, and observed the ongoing cleanup at its Kingston facility. We conducted our work from March to October 2009 in accordance with all sections of GAO's Quality Assurance Framework that are relevant to our objectives. The GAO-10-85R Coal Combustion Residue Regulation

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