What sort of ash disposal method does your coal-fired power plant use?

The Coalfield Progress, a twice-weekly newspaper in Norton, Va., is doing what should be done by all news organizations that serve readers, listeners and viewers who live near coal-fired power plants or future plant sites: asking questions about ash disposal in the wake of the spill that wrecked a neighborhood in Tennessee (see item below).

"If the coal-ash disposal method that failed Dec. 22 near Knoxville is an apple, then Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed Virginia City coal-ash landfill is an orange, according to company officials," Jeff Lester reports. "Dominion says its plan for burying ash in a lined, state-of-the-art landfill is very different — and much safer — than the Tennessee Valley Authority ash slurry pond that breached in Kingston, Tenn., causing the biggest ash spill in American history."

The Tennessee plant uses wet disposal, which creates a slurry that flows. The Virginia plant, far from a major stream, plans to conserve water and will use dry disposal, Lester writes. (Read more; subscription may be required)