Fly Ash Pond Closure Plan Is Subject Of Public Meeting Tuesday

Elected officials and citizens alike are likely to attend the meeting to learn more about a company's plan to cap an old coal fly ash containment complex.

A map of the ash pond complex at the former Tanners Creek Power Plant site in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Image by Tanners Creek Development LLC.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - A big crowd is expected to assemble in Lawrenceburg Tuesday seeking answers about potential contamination of local drinking water posed by millions of tons of buried coal fly ash.

Disposal of fly ash and other material at the former Tanners Creek Power Plant site has raised concerns about the future safety of drinking water pulled from a nearby aquifer. Last week, Eagle Country 99.3 published an article containing more information about the potential environmental dangers.

Tanners Creek Development LLC is holding a fly ash landfill closure meeting at Ivy Tech Community College’s Riverfront Campus, 50 Walnut street, in Lawrenceburg. It is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m.  

Representatives from Tanners Creek Development LLC, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Lawrenceburg city leaders, and Dearborn County Commissioners are expected to be in attendance at the public meeting. Citizens also hope to learn about the condition of the old power plant site and the fly ash pond complex closure plan.

A notice about Tuesday’s meeting says Tanners Creek Development, the company remediating the 725-acre brownfield area since 2016, plans to cap the fly ash pond with six inches of vegetative layer, 24-30 inches of a protective soil layer, a geocomposite drainage layer or geotextile cushion layer, and a 40-mil linear low-density polyethylene or 60-mil high-density polyethylene geomembrane. Most of the soil material will be from “on-site borrow sources.”

The fly ash pond closure plan is currently under review by IDEM, which will consider public comments.

"After the cap is complete and the closure is approved by IDEM, the site will enter a lengthy closure period where the ground water and cap is monitored for any impact to the surrounding environment," according to the plan notice from Tanners Creek Development. "The cap and entire closure process is done within the guidelines and regulations of IDEM and the federal EPA. The cap/containment system will protect the surrounding area from environmental impact due to ash or contaminants contained in the ash and will also provide a long term solution to past dust issues. This is a very carefully planned and costly improvement to the site conditions and the community as a whole will benefit."

A copy of the closure plan will be available for review at the Lawrenceburg Public Library for a period of 30 days beginning around June 5, according to Tanners Creek Development LLC.

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