Other Options for Dominion Energy

I read in Inside NOVA that Senator Surovell and Supervisor Baily do not support the idea that an onsite landfill should be built to properly dispose of the coal ash a Possum Point. I have concerns about their suggestions.  Senator Surovell stated that the power station at Possum Point will be closed in 15 years and Possum Point should be redeveloped and that the land value should be used to offset the cost of removing the coal ash from Possum Point and disposing of it elsewhere.  While I agree with the Senator and Supervisor that building a landfill may not be the best idea, redeveloping an industrial parcel of land that is sinking into the bay while sea level is rising is not a better idea, and hauling almost 4 million cubic yards of coal ash to another site is not a better idea.

Moving waste from one site to another simply creates another location for potential contamination from coal ash. Turning one contaminated site into two. The existing coal ash ponds have been open to the elements and taking on water for decades. Trace contaminants and metals in the coal ash have already leached into the soil and groundwater, Quantico Creek and Potomac and no doubt spread throughout a significant portion of the 780 acre site.

from Dominion energy

Creating a landfill on site would require continual monitoring and maintenance.  Though Dominion is proposing a landfill with two liners, all physical barriers fail over time this is addressed requiring monitoring and maintaining the systems. Possum Point has been an industrial property for over 70 years. We do not have the technology to restore land and water resources to a pristine state.  Environmental cleanups are crude and imperfect.          

Consider what happened in  Hinkely, California located in the Mojave Desert. The groundwater in Hinkley became contaminated with hexavalent chromium from the compressor plant operated by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). You may have heard of Hinkely or hexavalent chromium because of the movie “Erin Brockovich.”

In 1993, a legal clerk named Erin Brockovich investigated an elevated cluster of cancer in Hinkley that were linked to hexavalent chromium. Average hexavalent chromium levels in Hinkley were recorded as 1.19 parts per billion (ppb) with an estimated peak of 20 ppb. The PG&E Compressor Station averaged 7.8 ppb and peaks at 31.8 ppb based on the PG&E Background Study.

Though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory limit of total chromium at 100 ppb, and the EPA does not regulate hexavalent chromium at this time, and Dominion Energy has not tested for hexavalent chromium at Possum Point. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) for hexavalent chromium in California was lowered to 0.01 ppb in drinking water in 2014. Hexavalent chromium in drinking water is not regulated in Virginia, only total chromium.

Chromium is an element that is found naturally in coal in what is called the trivalent oxidation state, Cr(III). Chromium exists in nature as either a component in clay minerals such as illite or chlorite, or as its oxidized components; small-particle chromium oxide (Cr2O3) or oxyhydroxide (CrOOH) carbonaceous components of coal, or more rarely as chromite (FeCr2O4), as a result of special geology. Chromium is a metallic element found in rocks, soils, plants, and animals.

Cr(III) is relatively non-hazardous to humans and is in fact an essential nutrient. Chromium in coal is not considered a serious health risk. However, during commercial coal combustion, coal is burned with excess air to raise heat to generate steam for turbines that produce electricity. In the process, significant quantities of ash are created from the incombustible inorganic components in coal. That ash can contain not only hexavalent chromium, but also arsenic, selenium, lead, copper, antimony, and thallium. These are the contaminants likely present a Possum Point.

Furthermore, there is the potential for greatly increasing the health risk associated with chromium because not only can its concentration in the ash be increased by up to 10 times compared to that in the original coal, but Cr(III) can also be oxidized during coal combustion to form Cr(VI), which poses a much greater threat to public health.

Hexavalent chromium is commonly referred to as: chromium 6, chromium VI, Cr(VI), Cr+6, or hex chrome. Hexavalent chromium in the form of chromates is very soluble and, because of the six available electrons it has a high oxidizing capability, and can have severe adverse effects on the human body, including cancerous tumor formation and gene damage.

Research by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) has found that hexavalent chromium causes cancer in laboratory animals following oral ingestion at high doses (NTP, 2008). California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) analyzed data collected from China that found increased rates of stomach cancer in people who were exposed to very high levels of hexavalent chromium in drinking water (OEHHA, 2010). Redevelping Possum Point for anything other than industrial use seems unwise.

Northern Virginia has become the data center capital of the world. Prince William County already home to a significant number of data centers and with the majority of the 2,400 acres in the existing Data Center Overlay district not yet built out, but owned by data center development companies or directly by data center operators. In addition, the County Board of Supervisors is considering doubling that available land.

The total amount of proposed data center space in Prince William County is twice of the existing data center square footage in Loudoun County (the current data center capital of the nation and the world). It took Loudoun County 14 years to build out the existing data centers and Loudoun County still has approved data centers that have not yet been built. That is a tremendous amount of 24/7 power demand that Dominion Energy is required to meet while also required to convert to 100% renewable energy.  Given the existing grid infrastructure and forecast of massively increasing demand, Dominion Energy is going to have to generate some form of power from Possum Point, but possibly a significant portion of the 780 acres could be redeveloped using coal ash to pave and create foundations for industrial buildings, like data centers.  They are near a non-potable source of water and power lines.