PA DEP Sues PPL for Martins Creek Ash Spill

HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection today filed suit against PPL Generation LLC and PPL Martins Creek LLC for the Aug. 23 spill of more than 100 million gallons of contaminated water and fly ash into the Delaware River from the utility’s Martins Creek power plant in Lower Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County.

DEP filed a complaint asking Commonwealth Court to enter judgment against PPL for damages to Pennsylvania’s natural resources. The suit cites violations of the Solid Waste Management, Air Pollution Control, Dam Safety and Encroachments, and Hazardous Sites Cleanup acts, as well as the Clean Streams Law and violations of residual waste, dam safety and waterway management regulations.

“This was a major incident that had a serious effect on our environment,” Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty said. “This legal action ensures PPL continues to take all necessary cleanup measures, strengthens the commonwealth’s standing to collect penalties and preserves the state’s rights to recover damage claims resulting from the incident.”

DEP responded to a large spill from one of PPL’s ash settling basins at its Martins Creek power plant Aug. 23. Wooden stop logs that hold back water in the basin breached and allowed a discharge of fly ash slurry to move from the basin over land to Oughoughton Creek, and then to the Delaware River. The flow did not stop until Aug. 27.

A plume of ash was visible as far downriver as Easton.

PPL brought in contractors to remove the fly ash from nearby roads, fields and the stream. Additionally, the company began to sample private wells in the area in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Significant deposits of ash remain in the Delaware River.

On Sept. 6, DEP issued a Notice of Violation to PPL as a result of the department’s initial inspections and monitoring of the spill and its aftermath. An initial enforcement conference was held with the company Sept. 28. No penalty amounts have been established.

DEP’s Northeast Regional Office established a natural resource damage assessment team, which includes representatives from New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Region III of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

After the spill, the team immediately started to develop sampling and monitoring plans for the river and its ecosystem. DEP and the natural resource damage assessment team ultimately will judge what type of damage was done to the Delaware River and its ecosystem after more evaluations and sampling, which are happening now.

Natural resource damages consist of monetary or in-kind values paid to a trustee of natural resources to compensate the public for any damages to those resources.

DEP has established a section on its website for the ongoing cleanup effort. The website includes: weekly river sample results; PPL’s initial cleanup plans, which were approved by the department; and results of aquatic organism samples taken over the past several months, upon completion of tests.

That information is available at http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/. Scroll down the left-hand side to the map and click on Northeast Region.

CONTACT: Mark Carmon, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, +1-570-826-2511.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

CONTACT: Mark Carmon, Pennsylvania Department of EnvironmentalProtection, +1-570-826-2511

Web site: http://www.state.pa.us/http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/