15 Years After MN Thermal Plant Closed, Xcel Begins Cleanup Of Coal Ash Ponds

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Fifteen years ago the Northern States Power Plant located on the east edge of Granite Falls incinerated its final load of coal.
Over the past month the plant’s parent owner, Xcel Energy, has initiated the clean-up of the last remnants of the coal ash, which have been stored in four containment ponds located adjacent to the plant.

Xcel Energy Project Manager Darin Schottler, said that the company is currently filing a plan to remove all of the ash with MPCA. If the plans are approved, the four pools are expected to be dredged and closed sometime in 2011.

Schottler called the current effort, which only involves the first of the four ponds, a pilot project due to current uncertainties relating to the state of the coal ash. The project manager said that the company is not sure what it will require to remove the ash given the composition of east and western coal in addition to the length of time that it has been sitting. The pilot project will help determine requirements to be detailed in the removal plans.

Whatever the makeup of the ash, Schottler said that it is expected to take several hundred truckloads to remove all of the remains from the site. According to information contained in an EPA freedom of information request from May of 2009, the first two pools, installed during an expansion of the original plant in 1950, are approximately 12 feet deep and have a volume of 12,000 cubic yards. The third and fourth pools, installed in 1975, have a depth of approximately 9 feet with a volume of 10,800 cubic yards.

EDIT

http://www.granitefallsnews.com/news/x524685069/Xcel-begins-closure-of-Granite-Falls-coal-ash-ponds