Residents on well water within a mile of the Pirkey Power Plant south of Hallsville have been notified of recent test results showing harmful chemicals found in two wells serving about a half-dozen families.
“My wife got a little upset,” Finklea Road resident Richard Bearden said Friday in his living room. “Lithium, man, that’s what they make batteries out of.
“Actually, they’re fixing to start mining lithium in the state of Texas.”
Bearden should know that — he’s worked in area coal mines for a decade. And he was not overly concerned about the naturally occurring chemical that also is a byproduct of the ashen remains of spent coal.
AEP Southwestern Electric Power Co., which owns the 33-year-old coal-fired plant, reported the presence of lithium, cadmium and cobalt in the wells in the past two weeks.
“And AEP wants to set it right,” Bearden said, less than an hour before a company representative called to let him know it would pay to extend West Harrison County Water Supply Corp. lines to the house he’s called home for nearly seven years with his wife, Kristi, and two sons.
That was good news for the Beardens, who have been wanting to hook up to the water supplier but had been told it was cost prohibitive .
SWEPCO spokesman Peter Main said last week the chemicals were detected during the second year of a new Environmental Protection Agency program that requires testing twice a year near sites where the coal ash is stored.
Main said the company cannot say with certainty that the chemicals entered the underground aquifer from any of the four coal ash storage sites near Pirkey. He said the two wells where the chemicals were detected are “upgradient” from the wells, meaning they are upstream from the four coal ash sites.
“Because it’s before (the aquifer) goes under the coal ash sites, it can be naturally occurring … or it can be from other sources,” Main said. “It could be naturally occurring, and what we’re looking at is not an issue that was caused by the coal ash storage.”
Regardless, Main said, the company has delivered bottled water to area homes. And SWEPCO Vice President of Internal Affairs Brian Bond and others have been meeting with residents who might not be as familiar with mining chemicals as Bearden.
“Mr. Bond came in, he talked to us,” Bearden said. “We sat here, and we talked about it. And, of course, I know lithium is in all the water (everywhere); it’s no big deal. … And he’s a good guy, he’s standing behind his word. … There’s nothing to hide, to say that they are doing wrong. It’s just being a good neighbor, really.”
According to the website of international water treatment corporation Lenntech, lithium is an alkali that can cause labored breathing, nausea and burning eyes under direct exposure. Cadmium, under long-term direct exposure, can damage kidneys, lungs and bones. Exposure to cobalt at naturally occurring levels is not considered harmful to humans, though high-level exposure can cause sterility and hair loss, the site said.
“You can go anywhere in the state of Texas and find lithium,” Bearden said.
Walt Sears Jr., executive director of the Northeast Texas Municipal Water District, said SWEPCO’s discovery of the chemicals through routine testing is “nothing surprising.”
“Anytime we have industrial activity, there are going to be consequences to the environment,” said Sears, whose district sends water to Longview and seven smaller area cities. “There are minerals in the ground that are natural that are still ingredients that you do not want in drinking water.”
Sears noted that surface water, such as a lake or river, is treated in a plant before it’s piped to homes and businesses. Well water, however, is treated during its descent through sand layers en route to the flowing aquifer from which it is pumped.
“There is a sand filter that is naturally in the ground,” he said.
Main said the relatively new EPA coal ash rule set a baseline in 2017 and testing began in 2018.
He said the four coal ash storage sites at Pirkey are two ponds, a landfill and what’s called a stack-out area.
“The main thing is this is an EPA-required program,” he said. “It consists of a number of groundwater monitoring wells on the Pirkey site, primarily around the ash storage (sites). We have met with the neighbors whose private wells are within a mile of the plant.”
Main concluded by saying the company is in full compliance with its EPA obligations.
EPA spokeswoman Jennah Durant said results of SWEPCO’s coal ash residual testing program are posted at www.aep.com/environment/ccr/Pirkey .
“Finding lithium or any other (pollutant) during a monitoring event does not mean the facility has a violation but rather triggers the next step in groundwater monitoring and corrective action,” Durant said. “Regarding the Pirkey Power Plant in Hallsville, Texas, the facility has created and maintains a public website as required by the rule and has posted numerous documents in an effort to comply.”
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