Utility waste pond ruptures, this time in Ala.

updated 5:11 p.m. ET Jan. 9, 2009

STEVENSON, Ala. - A retention pond at a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-burning power plant leaked waste into a northeast Alabama creek Friday, putting more pressure on utility officials who are already trying to clean up a major coal ash spill from last month in Tennessee.

Workers at the Widows Creek Fossil Plant discovered the leak at the 147-acre retaining pond at about 6 a.m., officials said. By the time the discharge was stopped a few hours later, the spill had run into an adjacent pond and then overflowed into Widows Creek. A leaky pipe was likely to blame, the TVA said.

"Some did get into the creek. How much I don't know," TVA spokesman Gil Francis said. Most of the waste ended up in the second pond, he said.

Alabama emergency management officials were trying to determine if any drinking water systems were affected by the spill into the creek, which flows into the Tennessee River, said Scott Hughes, a spokesman for Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

The spill, about 30 miles southwest of Chattanooga, Tenn., comes after a dike burst at a plant near Kingston, Tenn., on Dec. 22, releasing more than 1 billion gallons of toxic-laden coal ash into a neighborhood. The spill has renewed a debate about whether states or federal regulators should oversee the materials, and at a hearing in Washington this week, Senate Democrats said they want stricter rules for toxic ash from coal-fired power plants.

The TVA, which is the nation's largest public utility and serves 9 million customers in seven states, has similar ponds in several locations. An Associated Press analysis of Energy Department data found that nationwide, 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to one that ruptured last month in Tennessee.

The federal utility said the pond that leaked Friday contained gypsum, a material that is captured in air pollution control devices at the plant. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral that contains calcium sulfate, which is used to make drywall, cement and fertilizer.

"It's in wallboard, like in your house," Francis said.

The spill occurred near the part of the Tennessee River that provides drinking water for the city of Stevenson.

Brent Blackmon, manager of Stevenson Utilities, which provides water to about 1,600 customers, said water samples were being taken from the river Friday afternoon and sent to a private laboratory in Tuscaloosa for testing.

"It's just a standard test to determine if there's anything that would contaminate our drinking water," Blackmon said. He said he's optimistic from the information he's received that the substances that went into the creek were not toxic. He said results from the lab are expected Monday afternoon.

The Alabama pond held a different kind of waste than what was contained in the Tennessee pond. The Kingston plant spill was wet fly ash, which contain heavy materials, including arsenic.

In 2005, the utility reported depositing 445,200 tons of gypsum in ponds at the Widows Creek plant. The Widows Creek plant also has fly ash ponds that are the largest in Alabama, according to EPA data.

Waste piling up nationwide
While TVA is the largest public utility in the country, it is hardly the only one that deals with waste ponds.

Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.

An Associated Press analysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds.

Records indicate that states storing the most coal ash in ponds are Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama.

The man-made lagoons hold a mixture of the noncombustible ingredients of coal and the ash trapped by equipment designed to reduce air pollution from the power plants.

Over the years, the volume of waste has grown as demand for electricity increased and the federal government clamped down on emissions from power plants.

The AP's analysis found that in 2005, the most recent year data is available, 721 power plants generating at least 100 megawatts of electricity produced 95.8 million tons of coal ash. About 20 percent — or nearly 20 million tons — ended up in surface ponds. The remainder ends up in landfills, or is sold for use in concrete, among other uses.

The Environmental Protection Agency eight years ago said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used to dispose of wastes produced from burning coal.

The agency has yet to act.

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