Other Coal Ash Sites

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Other Coal Ash Sites
September 2011
In addition to the coal ash impoundments at coal fired electric power plants, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) also works with a number of other sites with coal combustion residues. Illinois EPA also coordinates with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Office of Mines and Minerals (OMM) on the coal mine related sites. The following provides a synopsis of and status of Illinois EPA activities at some of these other sites:
U.S. Minerals, Montgomery County - U.S. Minerals is located on the south side of Coffeen and receives boiler slag from the Coffeen Power Plant, grinds and sizes the granules and ships them to facilities that make asphalt roofing shingles and blasting media. We received dust complaints from Coffeen citizens in 2004, 2005, 2006 and a violation notification letter (VNL) was sent in 2006. The company installed bag houses on the process and the facility currently has a Bureau of Air (BOA) state operating permit. We have not recently received any complaints about operations at this location. Storm water discharges from the site are covered by the general National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit for storm water associated with industrial activity (ILR005838)
Springfield Coal Company’s Crown III Mine Site, Macoupin County - This mine is located west of Farmersville and coal trucks backhaul fly ash and coal ash to the mine. Trucks dump the ash into an enclosed shed equipped with multiple water sprays to capture dust. The ash is sluiced out to a pond. A truck driver complained about blowing dust in 2004 and an Illinois EPA Bureau of Land – Bureau of Air (BOL-BOA) multimedia inspection was performed. BOL sent a VNL 9/28/04 for BOL violations. No other complaints have been received by BOA Field Operations Section (FOS). The mine currently has a BOA State operating permit.
The Crown III Mine is also inspected by OMM a minimum of once a month. Per OMM, dust is not normally observed blowing from the permit area, but when it is, the operator is required to water down the disposal areas using water trucks. Runoff from the disposal areas is directed to the sediment ponds found on the mine site. DNR has not received any complaints concerning dust for the Crown III Mine.
Certain contaminant concentrations in the Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Potential (TCLP) leachate analysis may exceed the Class II groundwater standards. However, it is noted that in general, the TCLP analysis is an acid leachate test the results from which are considered to be a “worse-case” scenario since the coal combustion waste (CCW) material will be maintained in an alkaline environment. Therefore, for most constituents the TCLP analysis results will provide an overstatement of actual