WHEATLAND – A national environment protection organization last week filed an intent to sue notice against Basin Electric Power Cooperative, owners of the Laramie River Station generating plant here, charging the company had violated mandatory reporting provisions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
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WHEATLAND – A national environment protection organization last week filed an intent to sue notice against Basin Electric Power Cooperative, owners of the Laramie River Station generating plant here, charging the company had violated mandatory reporting provisions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
At issue are several retention ponds used to store coal ash, a liquid byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity. It’s comprised of ash and other waste produced by scrubbers installed in the exhaust to remove sulfur dioxide from the gasses before they enter the atmosphere.
In its letter of intent to sue, the Sierra Club said the retention ponds at the LRS plant “are believed to include” a laundry-list of heavy metals and chemical contaminants, including mercury, lead and arsenic, and “may also contain radioactive materials.”
There are five ponds at LRS, including three designed as primary storage, or impoundments, for coal ash and two described as emergency holding ponds. The total storage capacity of the five ponds is listed at more than 3,200-acre-feet, according to the Sierra Club letter.
Wyoming Sierra Club chapter director Connie Wilbert, of Laramie, said an Emergency Action Plan released in April 2017 featured redactions of what her group believes were key pieces of information, including emergency contacts at LRS. That information, she said, is vital to protect the health and safety of neighbors of the plant, as well as being required information under the RCRA.
“Our basic concern is there are several things that are required to be in this Emergency Action Plan, which the company was required to develop, it simply does not have,” Wilbert said. “Our concern is we think it’s a basic public health and safety issue.”