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{{#badges: Climate change |CoalSwarm}} '''Widows Creek Fossil Plant''' is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] (TVA) and is located on Guntersville Reservoir on the Tennessee River in northeast Alabama. The power station has eight coal-fired generating units and "net dependable generating capacity" of approximately 1,629 megawatts. Construction of the power station commenced in 1950 and was commissioned in 1965. According to the TVA the "plant consumes about 10,000 tons of coal a day."<ref>Tennessee Valley Authority, [http://www.tva.com/sites/widowscreek.htm "Widows Creek Fossil Plant"], Tennessee Valley Authority website, accessed June 2008.</ref> {{#display_map:|34.891361, -85.750778 |width=600|height=400|type=satellite|zoom=14}} ==August 2009: TVA considering shutting down some aging coal plants==In August 2009, CEO [[Tom D. Kilgore]] announced that [[Tennessee Valley Authority|TVA]] was studying the possibility of closing its [[John Sevier Fossil Plant]] in Tennessee and the oldest six units at Widows Creek. A federal judge has ordered TVA to install pollution equipment on the plants by the end of 2013, at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. However, the company has not yet budgeted any money for the improvements. In 2010 TVA is planning to begin building an $820 million gas-powered plant to replace the generation at its John Servier Plant. The agency has already reduced power production from the oldest six units at Widows Creek. Environmental groups want TVA to shut down or convert to cleaner fuels the oldest and least efficient of its coal plants, including Widows Creek, John Sevier, and [[Johnsonville Fossil Plant|Johnsonville]] plants.<ref>[http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/aug/24/tva-may-shutter-aging-coal-fired-plants/?local "TVA may shutter aging coal-fired plants,"] ''Chattanooga Times Free Press,'' August 24, 2009.</ref> ==August 2010: TVA Announces Plans to Retire Widows Creek Units 1-6==On August 24, 2010 TVA announced that it will retire 9 coal-fired generating units totalling about 1,000 megawatts of capacity at three locations beginning in fiscal year 2011: [[Shawnee Fossil Plant]] Unit 10 in Kentucky, [[John Sevier Fossil Plant]] Units 1 and 2 in Tennessee, and [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]] Units 1-6 in Alabama, including six units at the [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]]. In addition TVA stated that it will going to eliminate 200 jobs at these plants starting in 2011, but the workers will be placed in other positions within TVA. CEO [[Tom D. Kilgore]] said that TVA would replace the sidelined coal power with greater reliance on nuclear power and energy efficiency.<ref>[http://www.tva.com/news/releases/julsep10/coal_plants.html "TVA to idle 9 coal-fired units,"] Tennessee Valley Authority press release, August 24, 2010.</ref> ==Drinking water contaminated with hexavalent chromium from coal may cause cancer==A report released by EarthJustice and the Sierra Club in early February 2011 stated that there are many health threats associated with a toxic cancer-causing chemical found in coal ash waste called [[hexavalent chromium]]. The report specifically cited 29 sites in 17 states where the contamination was found. The information was gathered from existing EPA data on coal ash and included locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virgina and Wisconsin. In Alabama, the TVA [[Colbert Fossil Plant]] in Tuscambia and the TVA [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]] in Stevenson were both reported as having high levels of chromium seeping from unlined retention ponds.<ref>[http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/CoalAshChromeReport.pdf "EPA’s Blind Spot: Hexavalent Chromium in Coal Ash"] Earthjustice & Sierra Club, February 1, 2011.</ref> According to EPA data, the Widows Creek coal ash site is an unlined pond. Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) was reported at the site above 100 ppb (parts per billion) - 5,000 times the proposed California drinking water goals and above the federal drinking water standard.<ref name="blind spot"/> As a press release about the report read: ::Hexavalent chromium first made headlines after Erin Brockovich sued Pacific Gas & Electric because of poisoned drinking water from hexavalent chromium. Now new information indicates that the chemical has readily leaked from coal ash sites across the U.S. This is likely the tip of the iceberg because most coal ash dump sites are not adequately monitored.<ref>[http://www.examiner.com/green-culture-in-mankato/coal-ash-waste-tied-to-cancer-causing-chemicals-water-supplies "Coal ash waste tied to cancer-causing chemicals in water supplies"] Alicia Bayer, Examiner.com, February 1, 2011.</ref> ==Plant Data==*'''Owner/Parent Company''': [[Tennessee Valley Authority]]*'''Plant Nameplate Capacity''': 1,969 MW*'''Units and In-Service Dates''': 141 MW (1952), 141 MW (1952), 141 MW (1952), 141 MW (1953), 141 MW (1954), 141 MW (1954), 575 MW (1961), 550 MW (1965)*'''Location''': County Road 96, Stevenson, AL 35772*'''GPS Coordinates''': 34.891361, -85.750778*'''Coal Consumption''':*'''Coal Source''':*'''Number of Employees''': ==Emissions Data==*'''2006 CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions''': 10,793,074 tons*'''2006 SO<sub>2</sub> Emissions''': 33,507 tons*'''2006 SO<sub>2</sub> Emissions per MWh''':*'''2006 NO<sub>x</sub> Emissions''': 17,184 tons*'''2005 Mercury Emissions''': 270 lb. ==Widows Creek ranked 20th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste==In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of [[Coal waste|coal combustion waste]] (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the [[TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill]].<ref name="iss">Sue Sturgis, [http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/01/coals-ticking-timebomb-could-disaster-strike-a-coal-ash-dump-near-you.html "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?,"] Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.</ref> The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.<ref>[http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/ TRI Explorer,] EPA, accessed January 2009.</ref> Widows Creek Fossil Plant ranked number 20 on the list, with 1,864,177 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.<ref name="iss"/> =="High Hazard" Surface Impoundment==In July 2009, TVA reclassified the surface impoundment at Widow's Creek as having High Hazard Potential. The rating applies Moved to sites at which a dam failure would most likely cause loss of human life, but does not assess of the likelihood of such an event. TVA had originally ranked all of its sites as "low" risk, but revised those rankings two weeks after the EPA released its list of 44 "high hazard" coal ash dumps.<ref>[[Coal waste]]</ref> ==Articles and Resources=====Sources===<references/>*[http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epat2p2.html Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005], Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.*Environmental Integrity Project, [http://www.dirtykilowatts.org/Dirty_Kilowatts2007.pdf "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants"], July 2007.*[http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/fii/fii_query_java.html Facility Registry System], U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009. ===Related SourceWatch Articles===*[[Existing U.S. Coal Plants]]*[[Alabama and coal]]*[[Tennessee Valley Authority]]*[[United States and coal]]*[[Global warming]] ===External Articles=== {{stubGEM}} [[Category:United States]][[Category:Corporations]][[Category:Environment]][[Category:Energy]][[Category:Climate change]][[Category:Existing coal plants in the United States]][[Category:Existing coal plants in Alabama]]
