Energy and Environment MonitorU.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) introduced legislation on January 14, 2009 requiring federal standards to regulate the engineering of coal ash impoundments.
In response to the TVA ash pond failure in Kingston, Tennessee, the Coal Ash Reclamation and Environmental Safety Act of 2009 (H.R. 493) would impose uniform federal design, engineering, and performance standards on coal ash impoundments. According to the website maintained by the Committee, the legislation, which requires minimum design and stability standards for all surface impoundments constructed to hold coal ash, draws on the regulatory model adopted under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) for coal refuse impoundments.
SMCRA type requirements that would apply to coal ash impoundments under H.R. 493 cover aspects of design, construction, operation, and closure, including:
• Regulations detailing the engineering and stability of the embankment
• Regulations requiring all applications for an impoundment to have a foundation investigation to determine design requirements for stability
• Each design plan must include a geotechnical investigation of the embankment foundation area
• Each impoundment plan must include a survey describing the potential effect on the structure from subsidence of the subsurface strata resulting from past mining operations in the area
• Plans for impoundments must be reviewed by a geologist or an engineer.
• Regulations requiring that a qualified engineer, with experience in construction of impoundments, inspect each impoundment regularly during construction, upon completion of construction, and periodically thereafter.
This article was authored by Robert G. McLusky, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.
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