Holcomb Station has 19 groundwater monitoring wells, 7 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between April 06, 2010 and October 07, 2019. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of sulfate, nitrate, arsenic, lithium, manganese and selenium.
Site descriptionSunflower Electric Power Corporation operates Holcomb Station, a 349-MW coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kansas in Finney County. Holcomb came online in 1983 with one unit. In 2020 Sunflower Electric abandoned plans to build an expansion to the plant. According to Sunflower's website, water to operate the plant is provided by six industrial groundwater water supply wells on Sunflower's property. Sunflower operates eight lined wastewater basins on site and trucks solid coal combustion waste generated at the plant one mile north to the 188-acre Holcomb Common Facilities Industrial Landfill regulated by the CCR rule.
Holcomb Station and the Holcomb Common Facilities Industrial Landfill are located above the Ogallala Aquifer, the primary source of drinking, agricultural, and industrial water in the area. Both sites are located over a state-designated sensitive groundwater area consisting of Quaternary Dune Sand.
You can find the industry-reported data here. For more information about the Holcomb Station, see EIP's 2019 National Coal Ash Report.