A recent coal ash spill from a wet storage pond at a Tennessee coal plant generated considerable media interest, including here in New Jersey, as concerns continue to grow around business impacts on the environment. More than one billion gallons of coal ash sludge was released from a 40-acre ash pond at a Kingston, Tennessee facility when a 55-foot high dike ruptured. The sludge washed over nearby houses and spread over approximately 300 acres of land and water, raising public health problems in the area.
In the aftermath, the question from reporters to operators of coal-fired generating plants was to the point: Can it happen here?
Fortunately, the answer from PSEG is that such coal spills will not be repeated in the communities that are home to the company’s Hudson and Mercer coal plants. PSEG discontinued the practice of wet storage of ash at its coal plants in the late 1990s in favor of recycling the ash.
Our New Jersey plants converted to dry storage more than 10 years ago. At those plants, coal ash is stored temporarily before being trucked offsite for use in the manufacture of cement kilns and for various other beneficial uses.
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Only on rare occasions are small amounts disposed in landfills.
PSEG is committed to doing coal generation right. We are spending nearly $1.5 billion to install the most advanced pollution control technologies at our coal plants. In addition, PSEG is spending more than $200 million to upgrade the performance of our Hudson station in order to enhance the plant’s combustion and reliability. This initiative will improve ash quality and may create additional recycling opportunities.
The fact is that most of the electricity Americans use is generated by coal, and it will remain a necessary component of our energy equation for the foreseeable future. It is a plentiful, domestic energy source and largely free from the international entanglements associated with natural gas like those we recently witnessed between the Republic of Georgia and Russia.
Homeowners who use natural gas to heat their homes have priority on access to natural gas supplies over power plants. During this winter’s cold snaps there has not been enough natural gas available to operate our combined cycle natural gas plants to meet customers’ electric demand. This made coal-generated electricity crucial to keeping the lights on in homes across New Jersey.
Running our coal plants in an environmentally responsible manner and our careful handling of coal ash reflect PSEG’s commitment to producing safe, reliable, economic and clean electricity.
What’s your view? Please let us know at Opinion@PSEG.com.
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