Boswell Energy Center has 18 groundwater monitoring wells, 12 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between May 24, 2016 and June 22, 2019. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of arsenic, sulfate, boron, lithium, molybdenum and cobalt.
Site descriptionMinnesota Power’s Boswell Energy Center is in Cohasset, Minnesota in Itasca County along the banks of the Mississippi River. Plant Boswell began operations in 1958 and operated four coal-fired units with a maximum generating capacity of 1,073-MW. Unit 1 and Unit 2 (75-MW each) were both retired in 2018. Minnesota Power announced in 2021 that Unit 3 (365-MW) will be retired by 2030 and Unit 4 (558-MW) will be transitioned off coal to another fuel source by 2035. Boswell Energy Center operates three CCR rule-regulated surface impoundments onsite: the Bottom Ash Surface Impoundment and Units 3 and 4. An inactive surface impoundment, the Old Bottom Ash Pond, is south of those active surface impoundments.
You can find the industry-reported data here. For more information about the Boswell Energy Center, see EIP's 2019 National Coal Ash Report.