Dominion to drain 100,000 million gallons of waste water into the Potomac River

[camelbird]

I apologize if this is frowned upon on this board. I do not wish to offend anyone on this board, but I did want to share with those who might be interested in attending the hearing and or voicing their opinion. There is a copy paste template you can send to Virginia DEQ to help save time and effort.


Dominion wants to drain over 100,000 million gallons of waste water from toxic coal ponds into the Potomac River


Please take one minute of your time to cut and paste the draft letter below. Tell Virginia DEQ to deny this permit and please consider attending the public hearing. Please circulate this information far and wide. Thank you!
IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEARING DECEMBER 8th: VIRGINIA ISSUES DRAFT PERMIT AUTHORIZING DOMINION COAL ASH DISCHARGE INTO POTOMAC RIVER

On May 6th, Potomac Riverkeeper investigated and sampled an unpermitted discharge from Dominion’s largest coal ash pond (Pond D) located at the Possum Point site – which has 5 coal ash ponds, four of which are completely unlined and have been leaking contaminants into groundwater and Quantico Creek for almost thirty years.

On July 27th, Potomac Riverkeeper presented its findings in a detailed report to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Public Health regarding an engineered “toe drain” discharging toxic metals– including cadmium, selenium, arsenic, vanadium and boron – from the bottom of Pond D, which has the capacity to hold over a billion gallons of toxic coal ash and waste water.

According to the report conducted by Environmental Stewardship Concepts, the discharge from Pond D “displayed elevated levels of metals and minerals” and that Quantico Creek “seems to have been contaminated with metals and minerals, and the most obvious and logical source is the water running off from the berm area” at Pond D (1 billion gallon capacity coal ash pond)..

Rather than seek an enforcement action against Dominion, the Virginia DEQ has issued a new draft permit that would not only allow Dominion’s “toe drain” discharge to continue, with no limits or requirements to treat contaminated waste water, the new permit would also allow Dominion to drain over 100 millions of gallons of waste water from its coal ash ponds at the Possum Point power plant into Quantico Creek and the Potomac River. There are no requirements to inform the public or downstream communities,nor does it state how the company will treat contaminated waste water it will drain from the coal ash ponds.Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has acknowledged Dominion's coal ash ponds leak and have contaminated ground water and yet long term environmental and potential public health impacts as well as impacts to striped bass and catfish populations have not been assessed.

Once coal ash ponds are drained, Dominion intends to "cap-in-place" tons of toxic coal ash stored at Possum Point in a pond that will continue to discharge contaminants into Quantico Creek, instead of removing the ash into a lined solid waste landfill away from the Potomac River like Duke Energy and other Utilities have been required to do in North and South Carolina.Please tell Virginia DEQ we can do better!

Please attend this important public public hearing on December 8th at 7:00 p.m. in the DEQ Northern Regional Office, 13901 Crown Court, Woodbridge, VA 22193. The agency will accept written comments until December 14.

Please Submit Written Comments to:
Mrs. Susan Mackert
susan.mackert@deq.virginia.gov


Simply cut and paste comment letter below (also attached). Please be sure to include name and address at the bottom of your letter. Feel free to personalize letter and please share this email with others.
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susan.mackert@deq.virginia.gov

Dear Mrs.Susan Mackert,

I want to express my opposition to Dominion’s application to the Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) for a permit to drain over 100 millions of gallons of contaminated water from coal ash ponds at the Possum Point Power Station directly into Quantico Creek and the Potomac River. It is my understanding the new draft permit would also allow Dominion’s on-going “toe drain” discharge from coal ash pond D to continue, with no limits on metals or requirements to treat contaminated waste water entering Quantico Creek and the Potomac River.

The DEQ has known Dominion's coal ash ponds leak and have been contaminating ground water for decades. Yet your agency recently acknowledged it does not even know the volume of contaminated water draining from the recently discovered toe drain on coal pond D. The long term environmental and potential public health impacts as well as impacts to striped bass and catfish populations have not been property assessed. DEQ’s Special Study for assessing contamination in the Creek will not be completed prior to making a decision on whether to allow the dewatering discharge.

Most people in Prince William County and communities downstream are totally unaware of this situation. There are currently no requirements to inform the public or downstream communities when Dominion will dewater the coal ash ponds, nor does the state know how the company will treat contaminated waste water drained from the coal ash ponds.

I do not support Dominion’s plans for "cap-in-place" that allows tons of toxic coal ash to continue to be stored at Possum Point in a pond that will continue to discharge contaminants into Quantico Creek, instead of removing the ash into a lined solid waste landfill away from the Potomac River and drinking water supplies like Duke Energy and other Utilities have agreed to do in North and South Carolina.

I believe the complexity of this issue, and the volume of technical information related to the permit modification, warrant additional time for public review and comment. The draft permit and Fact Sheet are over 300 pages, and the proposed dewatering action has never been undertaken in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Please deny this permit and extend the public comment period 60 days to provide additional time for the public to review the permitting information, attend the public hearing on December 8, and have the time available following the hearing to obtain additional information from DEQ to inform public comments.

Sincerely,


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[Donsail68]

Done!

Stuff like this really bothers me. Come on people, take care of our EARTH.

Donnie

[camelbird]

Please attend this important public public hearing on December 8th at 7:00 p.m. in the DEQ Northern Regional Office, 13901 Crown Court, Woodbridge, VA 22193. The agency will accept written comments until December 14.

[Romo]

Wow that is some ominous sounding stuff. Sounds like politics at work

[lordofthemanor]

What a mess. If we continue to allow things like this to happen, our grandchildren will never enjoy the beauty of our waterways and the joy of fishing. Sent my letter to her today.

[jsnyd86]

Done! Thanks for sharing

[volboy23]

I went to the meeting tonight and I would strongly urge anybody and everybody to use the contact information above and reach out saying that you want to deny this permit. It is not if there will be heavy metals dumped into the potomac, it is just a matter of how much. One of the issues that has been occurring over time is not being addressed. At worst, they need more time to even study and evaluate the entire permit request.

[cwhyzee]

I suggest that folks take a close look at the available information on the proposed dumping activity by Dominion. Before one sends a letter off to the Virginia government, they might want to spend more than a couple minutes reviewing the data.

First and most importantly, I agree with the original poster. I am opposed to the dumping of the contents of coal ash holding ponds into the river. But I believe an opposition voice has more credibility when the facts are stated correctly.

The original poster states that Dominion plans on dumping over 100,000 million gallons. That does not appear to be factual. All the available information I could find indicated the amount was somewhere between 357 million and 500 million, not the 100 billion or 100 trillion depending on how you read the number.

The plan is to slowly dump the contents of the holding ponds over an eighteen month period.
For reference, that comes to approximately:
28 million gallons per month,
926 thousand gallons per day,
38 thousand gallons per hour,
643 gallons per minute,
10 gallons per second.

The average flow rate of the river is 7170 cubic feet per second, or 53,635 gallons per second.
The per-second flow of coal ash water into the river is equivalent to approximately 0.01% of the outflow of the river for the same period of time.
This brings me to my second point of contention. This excerpt from a channel 9 news report:
“Take for example arsenic, a heavy metal considered toxic to people and a suspected carcinogen that accumulates in tissue, McLane said. The chronic standard established by the EPA is 150 micrograms per liter, the average concentration to protect aquatic life, he said. For drinking water it would be 10 micrograms.
The DEQ approved 530 maximum micrograms per liter for the Dominion permit, which McLane said is an improvement over the original proposal.
The water which saturates the coal ash has arsenic at over 900 micrograms per liter, according to McLane.
“The really bad water is the water saturating the coal ash,” McLane said. “
Let’s see, drinking water limit is 10, the permit is for 530 and the actual number is over 900. McLane is right, that does sound bad. But there is a problem with that whole line of thinking. Humans are horrible at statistics in general and specifically at accurately assessing large numbers. This whole time we have been thinking in gallons but this snipit is working in micro grams per liter.
So working with the gallons converted to liters, we arrive at a per second river flow rate of 203,068 liters per second. The contents of the coal ash pond drained over 18 months comes to a per second flow rate of 38 liters. 38 liters with 900 micrograms of arsenic per liter diluted into 203,068 brings the arsenic level to .168 micrograms per liter, or one sixth of the 10 microgram level deemed safe for drinking water.
In short, Dominions’ actions will have a negligible effect on the water in the river, the people who enjoy it or the life forms that inhabit it.
My question is what happens to all the heavy metals and toxic compounds once they settle to the river bottom or make their way to the bay? How do they affect the life forms that live in the silt and what happens over time to the food chain?
I dont intend to offend or insult anyone with this post. But I feel strongly about getting the facts correct, understanding what is really happening and asking the right questions. A movement to protect the natural resources we all love and enjoy will carry more weight if the foundation is based on truth.

[J.A. Veil]

Thank you for taking the time to explain the numbers. The media often fails to place things in a proper context, and opponents don't necessarily worry about facts or legal requirements. The federal Clean Water Act set up a regulatory program known as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program that issues permits for industrial and municipal discharges to surface water. Most states have the legal authority to issue NPDES permits. Contrary to what many opponents claim, the NPDES program has always relied on the concept of dilution when setting concentration limits for specific chemicals in the permits. As cwhyzee shows, the estimated concentration in the river, after dilution, is well below the target "safe" drinking water concentration.

As an aside, I worked in Maryland's industrial NPDES program for 10 years (1980-1990), and managed the program for the last few of those years. I wrote over 200 permits myself and reviewed about 1,000 permits over those years.