More’s Lake set for million-dollar “closure” project
A lake owned by Columbia Water and Light is set for a million-dollar “clean closure,” months after the department decided to stop using it for coal combustion.
The Environmental Protection Agency released new rules for coal burning plants and the disposal of that ash in 2015, after seven years of reviewing the process. Columbia burnt its last shipment of coal in September, putting an end to the decades-long practice of using coal for electric power at its Municipal Power Plant off of Business Loop 70. It also meant converting nearby More’s Lake from its use as a “containment pond” for coal combustion residuals, or CCRs. Power production supervisor Christian Johanningmeier said ending the process when they did, and going through the closure, would save Water & Light customers more than meeting the new rules.
Despite no longer taking coal ash for the power plant, it will still cost the city an expected million dollars just to “close” it through the EPA’s rules. Water and Lught introduced an ordinance to hire engineering firm Burns & McDonnell for $262,983 to help develop the specifics on what it needs to do to perform a clean closure. Johanningmeier said the general idea will be to clean the current coal ash from More’s Lake and “restore the pond to its original state.” The city’s fiscal year 2017 capital improvement projects list $1 million for the More’s Lake restoration.
“The pond was originally a farm pond, and so that’s our intention, is to put it back the way it used to be when it’s all cleaned up,” Johanningmeier told ABC 17 News Tuesday.
According to the EPA, closing “inactive CCR surface impoundments” must be done by April 17, 2018. Plants must give progress reports yearly, starting with a letter of intent to close the pond for coal ash. Johanningmeier said Water & Light will still own More’s Lake for stormwater runoff purposes, and may need to bring it up to new water quality standards. Once Burns & McDonnell helps figure out what exactly needs to be done, the city will put out a new bid for construction in early 2017, Johanningmeier said.
The supervisor added that spending money to close the pond for CCRs was a less expensive move than to continue on with coal-burning.
“If you were still using it past the effective date, it would have required an additional groundwater monitoring wells and those sorts of things that we do not…have to do because we’ve stopped burning coal before the effective date,” Johanningmeier said. “So we’re able to save the ratepayer some money.”
The Municipal Power Plant is now trying to convert one of its old coal furnaces to burn “biomass,” or wood, for power. The plant also burns natural gas for power, and is constructing a nitrogen oxide reduction program for it. Johanningmeier said they would like to engineer to consider a future use for More’s Lake – a body of water built in the 1890s – that involves the public. The city council could vote on the engineering contract as early as July 5.
