Based on the wide-spread reaction of our last post, we thought that is would be good to further explain “the choices” that could be available to all stakeholders (utilities, EPA, politicians, state regulators, environmental groups, and local communities) dealing with excavated legacy coal ash.
Before any choices are revealed, all the stakeholders must decide on a framework that LEAPFROGS ahead of the BARE MINIMUM and successfully completes the coal ash basin closure.
This small paradigm shift in thinking will reveal plenty of choices for the beneficiation, beneficial reuse, and on-site safe storage of excavated legacy coal ash, despite the overabundance of it.
The Right Tools for the Job
EnCAP-IT
EnCAP-IT has been involved in dozens of CCR unit site-level analyses. They all had common challenges and concerns: not enough space to safely store all the coal ash being excavated. While traditional storage methods lend, somewhat, to solving this dilemma, they often come up short. In every one of these analyses, using our tools provided a far safer, better, and cheaper way in which to properly create excavated ash reuses and/or storage.
When EnCAP-IT goes to work, we bring our tools with us.
Innovative Solutions Are Going to Take Priority
INNOVATIVE: Future Beneficiation Warehousing
safeSTORAGE®eMSE Structures
safeSTORAGE® creates on-site storage of excavated ash to extend the beneficiation plant well beyond the regulatory deadlines is an effective way increase beneficial reuse. Bringing the beneficiation plant to the feedstock supply will significantly decrease the economic burden of pre-production transportation costs.
INNOVATIVE: Expand New On-Site Facility Landfills (using Ash as Construction Fill)
safeBERM®eMSE Structures
safeBERM® goes beyond any traditional MSE berm design by incorporating additional safety factors. By integrating macroencapsulation, proactive liquids management, flattening out the exterior slope, and providing easy access the safeBERM® system provides protective features unmatched in today’s market.
At footprint constrained facilities, using the coal ash as backfill in a safeBERM® system not only decreases airspace needs, but also decreases costs as well.
INNOVATIVE: Construct New On-Site Facility Bunker Style Landfills
VertiCell™eMSE Structures
VertiCell™ consolidates, compacts the ash by utilizing the vertical airspace created over a limited area. These segmented bunker style cells are quickly filled, capped, and rendered inert at a much faster pace than traditional methods. This process is referred to Progressive Filling and Progressive Capping.
Creativity, ingenuity, and innovation is the answer to find a middle-path, but it takes all stakeholders to embrace change.
EXCAVATE
SAFELY STORE
