WISE COUNTY, Va., Aug. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion,
government agencies and a company that specializes in removing
waste coal are finishing up a major clean-up project in
Southwest Virginia that will help
significantly improve water quality in the Clinch River by using a
half-million tons of "gob" coal to make electricity in a
state-of-the-art power station.
"This is major environmental success story," said Paul Koonce, chief executive officer for the
Dominion Generation business group. "A unique power station is
taking a waste product from a century-old coal mine and using it to
responsibly make energy for Virginia today. This gob coal piled along the
banks of a Clinch River tributary has been polluting the river for
decades and desperately needed to be cleaned up. Along with the
environmental benefits, our Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, is
helping to keep our electric rates stable and boosting the economy
of Southwest Virginia with jobs
and taxes."
The Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, or DMME,
www.dmme.virginia.gov has long considered the 12-acre
Hurricane Creek gob pile site its highest priority for reclamation
in the Dumps Creek watershed. In 2014, the federal Office of
Surface Mining approved DMME's environmental document for the
project and authorized proceeding with the reclamation as part of a
larger effort to improve the health of the Clinch River
Watershed.
"This abandoned mine land was the largest pollution contributor
to the Clinch River," said DMME Director John Warren. "The environment is one of our top
priorities. Our Abandoned Mine Land program group worked
diligently to come up with funding to help rid Southwest Virginia of this hazard. We are also
proud to be a part of something that will also completely restore
the health of the tributary stream, Dumps Creek."
The Hurricane Creek gob pile is located near Carbo, Va., on
Dumps Creek and about a half-mile from the Clinch River. It
dates back to 1907 when the Moss 2 mine was first being operated by
Clinchfield Coal Co. The mine was shut down after a few years and
then reactivated in the 1940s and operated for several more
decades. As was common at the time, coal that had too much rock and
dirt mixed in for power station and other uses – gob – was often
left piled along streams and creeks.
Approximately one million tons of waste coal and rock were
removed and properly disposed of as part of this clean up-project,
with about 500,000 tons of gob coal transported to the Virginia
City Hybrid Energy Center (VCHEC) at St.
Paul, where it was used to produce electricity.
It is estimated that every year more than 200 tons of waste coal
from the pile made it into Clinch River for decades. Because of the
vast quantity of gob coal at the site and its extremely low Btu
content, there was no economically feasible solution to remove the
gob until the construction VCHEC with its unique waste-coal burning
capabilities.
The Nature Conservancy of Virginia protects more than 35,000 acres in
the Clinch Valley and has been working for years to restore the
health of the Clinch River and the wildlife it supports.
"The reclamation of the Hurricane Creek gob pile is an important
step toward improving water quality in the nationally important
Clinch River watershed," said Brad
Kreps, director of the Clinch Valley Program for the Nature
Conservancy. "Finding creative solutions to address pollution from
abandoned mined lands is a crucial part of a larger effort underway
to ensure that the Clinch River can provide clean water for the
people, wildlife, and the local economies that depend on it."
Eleven other gob piles in this part of Virginia have already been reclaimed by Gobco,
Dominion and DMME because of VCHEC's waste-coal burning
capabilities – approximately 2.65 million tons to date. For vivid
before-and-after pictures, go to: https://www.dom.com/vchec Gob is
an old English word that stands for 'garbage of bituminous.'
Bituminous is the type of coal found in Southwest Virginia.
VCHEC is a 600-megawatt power station that utilizes a technology
called "circulating fluidized bed" so it can burn waste coal.
It can also burn biomass as part of its fuel and currently uses the
renewable source for about 10 percent of its fuel. Fitted with the
latest environmental control technology, VCHEC began operation in
2012 and quickly took on waste coal as part of its fuel stream. The
facility operates under some of the most stringent air quality
requirements in the nation for a coal-fired power station.
Dominion partners with Gobco LLC of Abingdon, Va., a company that has won multiple
awards for its work in environmental reclamation, to identify and
reclaim old waste coal sites in Southwest
Virginia. Gobco screens out the waste coal and provides it
to VCHEC for use in the power station. The site is cleaned down to
the original ground, covered with top soil where necessary, sloped
as needed for proper drainage and replanted with a special grass
that supports wildlife. The surface area is then replanted with
thousands of native hardwood tree seedlings.
"To see these old waste coal sites restored is really a joy for
us," said Walt Crickmer, co-owner
and manager of Gobco. "I have worked 40 years in the coal industry
and the last 13 years overseeing these reclamation efforts.
However, it was not until VCHEC came online that our company really
had the opportunity to clean up some of the worse problems. The
irony is that a new type of coal-fired power station is crucial to
cleaning up the waste of a bygone era in coal mining."
Over the coming months, Dominion will be working with Gobco and
DMME to evaluate other major gob piles in the Clinch River
watershed and plan for their reclamation.
About Dominion
Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the
nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a
portfolio of approximately 25,700 megawatts of generation, 12,200
miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline,
and 6,500 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion
operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems
with 933 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves more
than 5 million utility and retail energy customers in 14 states.
For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website
at www.dom.com/.
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dominion-powers-removal-of-largest-pollution-source-of-clinch-river-300319975.html
SOURCE Dominion