James Bruggers

@jbruggers

EPA says new landfill plan would destroy 60 percent more stream habitat than an earlier proposal.

LG&E may need to study more alternatives.

LG&E says its plan is environmentally responsible and affordable.

Dealing another blow to LG&E's plans for a coal ash dump on its Trimble County power plant property, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now opposing a key federal permit and suggesting an underground alternative.

After a previous LG&E landfill proposal was rejected by state environmental regulators, the company earlier this year submitted a new plan, and the EPA opposition puts it in jeopardy, said Tim Joice, policy director for Kentucky Waterways Alliance, an environmental group.

At issue is a wetlands destruction permit application that's under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. EPA said in a recent letter that the company should consider sending the coal-burning waste to an underground limestone mine in Gallatin County, two counties away up the Ohio River.

EPA's opposition likely means the Corps will have to ask LG&E to do a more substantial analysis of alternatives to the landfill, Joice said. The EPA's recommendation to reject the permit is unusual and reflects the high quality of streams that have been identified on the 189-acre landfill property, Joice said.

EPA said the proposal would destroy 16.5 miles of streams "that have been documented to be among the highest quality in this region of Kentucky," and are of "national importance."

Corps spokeswoman Carol Labashosky said her office "is pretty far from making a decision" on the permit.

The Corps is pretty far from making a decision on this permit action.

"We definitely do need additional information regarding alternatives because ... we must ensure that the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative is selected," she said.

LG&E spokeswoman Natasha Collins defended the company's latest landfill proposal as environmentally responsible. She said the location was selected after looking at more than 50 different design scenarios, and that having to ship the waste to another location would be too costly and increase truck traffic on roads.

The company's Trimble County plant provides power to about 1 million Kentucky residents, she said, "and we do not want to lose our least-cost advantage to our customers and the state."

The company for at least the last three years has been saying that its ash storage ponds along the Ohio River at Trimble are filling up.

LG&E had been planning on stockpiling its ash and scrubber waste in a new, more environmentally friendly landfill to be built on 218 acres of company-owned property nearby. But those plans hit an obstacle in 2011, when state officials learned of a cave on the property. Caves are generally protected by a 1988 law that makes it "unlawful to remove, kill, harm or otherwise disturb any naturally occurring organism" found within them.

That proposal died after a consultant hired by LG&E reported that the cave may have been a hiding place for the Underground Railroad, a network that helped slaves move from the South to freedom in Northern states in the 1800s.

The company then worked more than a year to develop a new proposal for a 189-acre landfill proposal, Collins said.

EPA, which has authority to veto a Corps decision on the permit, says the new plan would directly impact 60 percent more stream habitat than the first proposal.

EPA recommends the company take a harder look at alternatives, including the underground limestone mine in Gallatin County. EPA said that mine already holds a permit to accept coal combustion waste and could probably handle all the power plant's scrubber waste and coal ash.

Joice agreed it's worth examination, especially if placing the waste in the mine won't contaminate any groundwater.

R. Bruce Scott, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection, said the EPA's letter and determination landfill would destroy waters of national significance was based on incorrect information from one of his staff members. Scott said he's not sure how that might play into Corps and EPA reviews.

In May, state Division of Waste Management regulators also found the new proposal lacking, and asked LG&E to address issues ranging from dust and erosion control to historic preservation.

Coal burning waste contains toxic heavy metals, and questions about its safety became a concern in 2008 after 5.4 million cubic yards of it broke through a dam at TVA's Kingston plant near Knoxville. It blanketed several hundred acres, damaged homes and properties, and polluted a tributary of the Tennessee River.

Earlier this year, parties in a lawsuit reached an agreement for the EPA to issue its first national rules on the management and handling of coal combustion wastes by Dec. 19, potentially considering them hazardous.

Reach James Bruggers at (502) 582-4645 or on Twitter @jbruggers.