Tagged: coal ash

Louisville Gas and Electric has been granted a permit to use coal ash from the company’s Cane Run power plant to begin closing a pond on the site.

Louisville Gas and Electric announced today that the company's coal-fired Cane Run Power Plant will be shut down eight months earlier than planned.

The company announced plans to convert the power plant to natural gas last year, and construction on the new facility is going faster than expected. The coal-fired plant should be shut down by May 2015.

Here's what LG&E had to say in a news release:

Louisville Gas and Electric has withdrawn its permit application for an additional coal ash landfill at its Cane Run plant.

Coal ash, its storage and its tendency to blow onto neighboring properties have all been headaches for LG&E at Cane Run and the company is planning on phasing it out to build a natural gas facility.

The landfill application, which has been pending since January 2010, was dropped due to the slated natural gas facility and to the building of an earthen wall that allows the existing landfill to hold more coal ash.

Louisville Gas and Electric has had another equipment malfunction at its Cane Run plant, which released clouds of coal ash yesterday evening.

The sludge processing plant is the machine that takes the coal ash and mixes it with other materials to turn it into a concrete-like substance, so it can be put into the landfill. A video shot by Greg Walker, who lives across the street, shows clouds of ash rising above the plant—and over the dust screen the company installed in April.

Several residents near the Cane Run Power Station are angry after Louisville Gas & Electric employees walked onto their property without permission to collect dust samples off their homes.