Management of Coal Combustion Residuals from the Shawnee Fossil Plant

On January 16, 2018, TVA released a Record of Decision (ROD) for the construction and operation of an onsite landfill to help manage the coal combustion residuals at the Shawnee Fossil Plant near Paducah, Kentucky, in McCracken County. The final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was released on December 8, 2017.

The year-long EIS assessed the environmental impacts of closing an existing special waste landfill, a large ash impoundment, and building and operating a new lined landfill that will store dry coal ash waste produced at the plant in the future. While TVA assessed all of those actions, TVA’s decision in January pertained only to the construction of a new onsite lined landfill to provide additional long-term disposal for dry coal combustion residual materials produced at the Shawnee Fossil Plant.

TVA chose to further analyze the closure alternatives as well as consider the environmental impacts associated with construction and operation of two process water basins that will collect and treat process flows from the Shawnee Fossil Plant in a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) The final SEIS was released on August 24, 2018. On October 22, 2018, TVA released a ROD for the closure of the special waste landfill and a large ash impoundment. The ROD also included the construction and operation of the two process water basins.