AUDIO: Water Utilities, State Lawmaker Are Latest To Oppose Fly Ash Shipments

Monday, March 12, 2018 at 7:27 AM

It’s Lawrenceburg’s fight, but the drinking water of residents in Aurora and surrounding areas may be most at risk if fly ash shipped in from out-of-state is buried near the city’s drinking water well.

By Mike Perleberg

Underground drinking water wells used by Aurora Utilities (blue dot) and Lawrenceburg-Manchester-Sparta Conservancy District (red dot) are within the five year time of travel area (purple line) of a landfill (red shaded area) which could be filled with out-of-state fly ash. Image courtesy Aurora Utilities/LMS Conservancy/Wessler Engineering.

(Aurora, Ind.) - It’s Lawrenceburg’s fight, but the drinking water of residents in Aurora and surrounding areas may be most at risk if fly ash shipped in from out-of-state is buried near the city’s drinking water well.

Aurora Utilities and the Lawrenceburg-Manchester-Sparta Conservancy District are the latest entities to pen letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Superintendents Randy Turner and Hershell Gossett ask for denial of Tanners Creek Development LLC’s request to build a barge unloading facility for fly ash. The toxic material from two Ohio coal-fired power plants would be used to finish filling an ash landfill at the former Tanners Creek Power Plant in Lawrenceburg, the proposed site of Ports of Indiana's fourth port.

Both utilities pump drinking water from underground aquifers. Their superintendents say there are well sites less than a half-mile from the landfill, and the unlined settling pond presents “a clear and present danger to the community.”

“The primary concern is that stormwater will percolate through the landfill, dissolve toxic chemicals, and ultimately leach into the underlying aquifer,” Turner and Gossett explain. “This leachate is commonly accepted to be laden with heavy metals known to be carcinogenic in nature.”

The superintendents say that if the toxic chemicals reach the aquifer, the public water supply will be irreparably harmed, leaving communities with a permanent, dependable drinking water supply.

If the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approves a barge unloading facility for the fly ash project, Turner and Gossett ask that Tanners Creek Development be responsible for installing water monitoring wells between the landfill and the public well fields.

Also joining the march of letters to the Corps of Engineers and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is the Lawrenceburg Conservancy District. The local flood prevention agency’s chairman Mike Noel and environmental consultant Mundell & Associates cites concerns for not only public health, but the risk to flood protection for Lawrenceburg and Greendale. “Of greatest concern for public health is the potential for changes in the local hydrology due to filling in the flood plain which will affect flood elevations, and could cause failure of the levee systems protecting Lawrenceburg and Greendale,” the LCD and Mundell & Associates letter states.

One of the largest proponents of the inland port in Lawrenceburg, a potential economic boon for the region, has been has been State Representative Randy Frye (R-Greensburg). On Monday, Frye told Eagle Country 99.3 that it is IDEM's job to monitor the site and the quality of drinking water. He said he has contacted IDEM officials on multiple occasions and asked them to deny Tanners Creek Development's permit.

"I just don't think it's a good idea," said Frye. "I just don't think it's good for our community. However, the port is great for our community. We don't need that to be interrupted, we don't need anything holding it up, and certainly we don't need to concern our folks about their health. So, IDEM needs to do their job, but also listen to the community and make sure people are protected."

Listen to Eagle Country 99.3's interview with State Rep. Frye in the audio player below.