Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409240048
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ For years, Norfolk Southern Corp.'s railroad has hauled coal from the Appalachian coalfields to electric utilities in the eastern United States. In the years ahead, the railroad may be carrying back much of the ash left over after power plants burn the coal.
Hauling back coal ash holds promise, said William Bales, NS's vice president for coal marketing in Roanoke. "We're always interested in new business and this is one we think may be a new opportunity for us," he said.
Bales said NS has had a team looking for more than a year at the potential for moving coal ash to the coalfields. The business is one that could develop significantly within a few months, he said.
The idea is not new but is particularly appealing to NS and other railroads because coal cars typically return to the mines empty.
Since April, Virginia Power has shipped on CSX rail lines 39,480 tons, or 449 rail cars full, to a West Virginia coal company. This represents all of the coal ash produced by its 1,144-megawatt Yorktown power plant.
Virginia Power has a contract with Anchor Energy Co. to take 30,000 to 200,000 tons of the ash a year over the next three years, said utility spokesman Ken Blackwell. The coal company mixes coal ash with other waste and pumps it back into its abandoned mines, he said.
Virginia law allows coal ash to be put to limited use such as for fill under building foundations. The state, however, has over the past two to three years received requests to expand the uses allowed for the ash, most of which is buried in landfills.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is developing regulations that would allow coal ash to be used in the reclamation of strip mines and, to a greater degree, as construction fill material.
"The regulations talk about coal ash from the perspective of putting it to productive use," said Harry Gregori, the department's policy and research director. The proposed regulations are designed to provide the same environmental protection as if the ash were buried in landfills, he said.
Whether coal ash, which can contain trace metals, is an environmentally benign material is a matter of debate, Gregori said. The chemical composition of the ash varies depending on where the coal was mined, he said.
The state began work on the new regulations early this year and recently held public hearings in Richmond and Wise. Speakers at the Richmond hearing supported permitting beneficial use of the ash, while those at Wise - in the heart of the coalfields - were divided, Gregori said.
The state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy has issued permits for three sites over the past 10 years for the experimental application of coal ash to strip-mined land. Two of the sites were at Virginia Tech's Powell River research project and the third was Westmoreland Coal Co.'s operation, all in Wise County.
A department geologist said that monitoring of those sites had revealed no environmental problems from application of the ash, department spokesman Mike Abbott said.
Virginia Power announced two years ago its support for the research of a Virginia Tech soil specialist who was studying the use of the coal ash to neutralize acid-producing materials in coal refuse piles.
Appalachian Power Co., based in Roanoke, gets most of its power from coal-fired plants, but is not involved in back-hauling of ash to coal mines, said Don Johnson, a company spokesman.
Some utilities are having trouble trucking ash to disposal sites, NS's Bales said. The railroad's decision to go after that business fits in with its aggressive strategy of competing with trucking companies, he said.
Bales said the railroad would not fill its coal hoppers as full of ash as it does with coal, and would spray the top of the ash with a special substance to prevent it from blowing out of the cars.
Coal ash can come either as a fine substance from a power plant's smokestacks or in a heavier form from its boilers.
Norfolk Southern has moved three or four cars on an experimental basis, he said, because the company has been criticized in the past for dust blowing out of its coal cars.
Bales said he was not aware of any utilities putting pressure on coal companies to take back coal ash in return for coal sales contracts. He said, however, that offering the back-haul service might be a good marketing device that the coal companies and railroad could use to develop a long-term relationship with the utilities.
"When you can add value to a product or service, it's very important," he said.
by CNB