Fayette Power Project Groundwater Testing

[Jose Chito Vela]

Colleagues,

I have compiled a brief summary of my office's reasoning for conducting groundwater testing around the Fayette Power Project.

Fayette uses a combination of a coal ash pond and a coal landfill to store waste on the plant’s property. These practices are sufficient to meet regulatory standards, but have failed multiple times at other plants and are being looked at by the EPA.
(Source: https://www.eenews.net/articles/leaked- ... ash-ponds/ )

The FPP says its monitoring system is in line with federal and state regulations, but given the record of TCEQ that gives me little comfort.
(Source: https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2 ... est-water/ )

The Fayette Power Project has shown elevated levels of several potentially dangerous chemicals, two of which are particularly prominent: lithium and sulfate. Environmental Integrity Project determined in 2019 that “groundwater at Fayette is unsafe.”
(Source: https://environmentalintegrity.org/wp-c ... Report.pdf )

As reported in 2019, groundwater testing at the FPP once revealed lithium and sulfate levels at 3x the maximum safe concentration.
(Source: http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/w ... Report.pdf )

Additionally, early testing revealed elevated groundwater levels of manganese, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, arsenic, and selenium.
(Source: https://www.ashtracker.org/facility/76/ ... ject-plant )

Given that we do not have access to any data more recent than 2011, and that the data collected at that time indicated what could be a serious contamination issue, I believe we must move forward as soon as possible and get accurate and up-to-date data.

Sincerely,
Chito Vela