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October 2, 2007
Dairyland wants 600-acre coal ash landfill
From a story by Tim Hundt and Reid Magney in the Vernon County Broadcaster:
Some residents of western Vernon County are reeling after they were presented with paperwork last week that said Dairyland Power Cooperative would like their land to develop a 600-acre landfill to dispose of ash from its coal-fired power plant in Genoa.Four residents were approached by Dairyland last week with papers asking them to allow Dairyland to do soil testing.
The residents have instead have banded together with their neighbors to see what can be done to stop the proposed plan, which would put a landfill with poisonous material next to a number of conventional and organic farms. . . .
Currently, 80 percent of ash from Genoa is recycled in concrete and roads, with the rest being taken to an ash landfill near Dairyland’s coal plant in Alma. Mirasola said new pollution control equipment at Genoa, including a filter baghouse, will improve air emissions from the plant, but also will create more ash waste. Because lime is used to remove sulfur dioxide and mercury, the resulting ash can’t be recycled in concrete anymore. The landfill will store coal ash and lime waste with captured sulfur dioxide and heavy metals that have been collected in the baghouse, Mirasola said.
Posted by Ed Blume at October 2, 2007 9:10 AM