Dominion gets first permit for fly-ash dump

RICHMOND

The intense environmental debate over a proposed power plant in Wise County in southwest Virginia turned on Tuesday from air pollution to fly ash.

This round ended shortly after it began, with the State Water Control Board approving one of three permits that Dominion Virginia Power needs to construct a 330-acre landfill that would hold tons of the ash produced next door at a coal-fired power station.

Unlike previous public hearings about the plant, there were no opponents speaking about global warming or mercury or smog - only a crowd of proponents who drove to Richmond and wore blue lapel stickers declaring, "I support the VA City Hybrid Energy Center." The 585-megawatt electricity project would burn coal and coal waste mined from southwest Virginia and would deliver power throughout the state. Supporters say it would produce jobs and business opportunities and move Virginia closer to energy independence; the state now is a net energy importer.

The unanimous vote Tuesday endorsed a Dominion waste plan for converting a small stream named Curley Hollow into an industrial landfill. There, atop synthetic lining and among other safeguards, 2.4 million tons of fly ash would be buried each year for the next 17 years.

As compensation, Dominion would restore a nearby failing stream along Meade Creek, preserve about 2 acres of wetlands and enhance another mountain brook.

Dominion officials said they were pleased with the outcome but that they still need federal approval as well as a state solid-waste permit and a state stormwater permit before landfill construction can begin. Most concerns about fly ash and its potential to cause toxic harm to the environment probably will be handled in the state solid-waste permitting process, separate from the one that wrapped up Tuesday over wetlands and stream impacts.

The Nature Conservancy, for example, is worried that many endangered plant and animal species could suffer in its sprawling Clinch River ecological preserve. Still, the permit approved Tuesday included a tougher requirement that Dominion monitor for 15 years, instead of five years, the results of its environmental compensation measures.

Left unresolved are court challenges, filed last week by the Southern Environmental Law Center. They alleged that state air permits granted this summer for the power plant are not tough enough and do not require the most advanced technology to curb mercury, carbon dioxide and other emissions.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com