Flint Creek Power Plant has 31 groundwater monitoring wells, 29 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between January 26, 2010 and August 29, 2017. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of selenium, sulfate, arsenic, manganese, cobalt, molybdenum, lead, radium, antimony, chromium, lithium, beryllium, boron and fluoride.
Site descriptionThe Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) Flint Creek Power Plant is located a mile west of Gentry, in Benton County. It is a 528 MW coal-fired facility and uses coal mined from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming. Flint Creek has operated its plant and 40 acre landfill for fly ash and bottom ash since 1978. There are 45 private wells within a 2-mile radius of the plant and 6 public wells within a 5-mile radius of the plant.
Even prior to the recent groundwater monitoring required by the CCR rule, there were documented exceedances of barium, cadmium, lead, iron, manganese, silver, selenium, chromium, and sulfate standards at the site. Statistically significant increases in January 2005 for sulfate, pH, TDS, and selenium resulted in the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) requiring SWEPCO to initiate assessment monitoring at the landfill. Additionally, ADEQ issued a Notice of Deficiency to SWEPCO in 2008 due to an uncontrolled discharge of CCW leachate from the landfill, requesting the installation of a leachate collection system and treatment of CCW leachate prior to discharge into ponds. AEP argued that no treatment other than discharge to the pond was necessary and that continued discharge through the intermittent stream was acceptable.
The CCR Management Unit and Primary Bottom Ash Pond are regulated under the CCR rule. You can find the industry reported data here. For more information on the Flint Creek Power Plant, see EIP’s 2019 National Coal Ash Report, Coal's Poisonous Legacy.