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Coal Combustion Byproducts Management 

This overview includes discussions of Consumers Energy’s proactive coal combustion byproduct 

(CCB) management and the structural integrity of its land disposal areas.

Coal-fired electrical generation produces two types of ash – fly ash and bottom ash — that are 

collectively labeled as CCBs. Fly ash is fine particulate in the flue gas that is collected by 

electrostatic precipitators and filter bags. Bottom ash, with grain sizes ranging from fine sand to

fine gravel, is collected from the floor of coal burning furnaces.

More than 90 percent of the mineral component of coal fly ash consists of oxides of four 

common elements that make up soil and rocks: silicon, iron, aluminum and calcium. Like soil 

and rock, coal ash also contains trace elements that can pose potential public health concerns 

under conditions of high exposure. Collectively, the trace elements comprise less than 1 percent

of the weight of the fly ash. Because all of the elements contained in coal ash exist naturally in 

the environment, humans are exposed to some form of them every day.

Information related the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to regulate CCB 

disposal under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) also is discussed in the context 

of Consumers Energy’s management of CCBs. 

CCB Land Disposal Area Management

The company has four licensed land disposal areas located at the Karn/Weadock, Campbell and 

Whiting plants that receive CCBs from the coal-fired units. The land disposal area at the Cobb 

plant was closed permanently in 2008 in accordance with its state-approved closure plan.

These land disposal areas are regulated under Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental 

Protection Act Part 115, which is enforced by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources 

and Environment (DNRE). Part 115 rules are modeled after the EPA’s regulations for municipal 

solid waste landfills. The Part 115 regulations require engineering plans, construction permits for 

new facilities or existing facility expansions, and closure plans and operating licenses, which are 

reviewed and reissued on a five-year basis by the Michigan DNRE. The closure plans, which are 

certified by an independent registered professional engineer, contain specific requirements for 

the final cover material, long-term maintenance and monitoring. The long-term monitoring 

continues on land disposal areas well past closure.

These land disposal areas each have a $1 million letter of credit that serves as a performance 

bond to ensure funding is available for any corrective actions that become necessary during the 

post-closure period. The land disposal areas also have perpetual care funds held by Bank of New 
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York Mellon that the company contributes to on a quarterly basis to ensure the funding of the 

land disposal area maintenance for a minimum of 50 years after closure. 

Part 115 rules also require annual characterization of the waste through leachate testing. The 

CCBs produced by the company’s coal-fired plants meet the requirements for low-hazard 

industrial wastes — concentrations of potentially hazardous materials that are less than 10

percent of EPA’s hazardous waste thresholds. 

Ground water monitoring is required quarterly at active CCB land disposal areas and is required 

semiannually at closed land disposal areas under Part 115. Quarterly ground water monitoring 

and reporting of the company’s land disposal areas began in 1982. 

Land Disposal Area Descriptions

Campbell 

At the Campbell plant, the 138-acre landfill has a double high-density polyethylene liner that 

meets the design requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 

Subtitle D requirements. The land disposal system includes a leachate collection system for 

monitoring landfill performance. The fly ash is transported and stored in the dry state, 

significantly reducing the amount of water in the land disposal area. The fly ash is moistened 

with water and placed and compacted in the landfill according to landfill and engineering design 

standards. Compliance with environmental requirements is assured through implementation of 

the land disposal area’s hydrogeological monitoring requirements, solid waste area operating 

license and construction permit.

Karn/Weadock

The Karn plant land disposal area is a 174-acre former surface impoundment that is being 

dewatered and closed as a landfill under Part 115 rules. The fly ash is transported and stored in 

the dry state, significantly reducing the amount of water in the land disposal area. The fly ash is 

moistened with water and placed and compacted in the landfill according to landfill and 

engineering design standards. Compliance with environmental requirements is assured through 

the implementation of the land disposal area’s hydrogeological monitoring plan, solid waste area 

operating license and construction permit.

The Weadock plant land disposal area is a 292-acre former surface impoundment that is being 

dewatered and closed as a landfill under Part 115 rules. The fly ash is transported and stored in 

the dry state, significantly reducing the amount of water in the land disposal area. The fly ash is 

moistened with water and placed and compacted in the landfill according to landfill and 

engineering design standards. Compliance with environmental requirements is assured through 

the implementation of the land disposal area’s hydrogeological monitoring plan, solid waste area 

operating license and construction permit.
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Consumers Energy has a ground water discharge permit unique to the Karn and Weadock land 

disposal areas. The permit provides an additional level of monitoring for impacts to ground water 

at this site.

Whiting

The Whiting plant land disposal area is a 152-acre former surface impoundment that is being 

dewatered and closed as a landfill under Part 115 rules. The fly ash is transported and stored in 

the dry state, significantly reducing the amount of water in the land disposal area. The fly ash is 

moistened with water and placed and compacted in the landfill according to landfill and 

engineering design standards. Compliance with environmental requirements is assured through 

the implementation of the land disposal area’s hydrogeological monitoring plan, solid waste area 

operating license and construction permit.

At Whiting, the Michigan DNRE recently has granted a ground water monitoring waiver because 

the company has demonstrated the site’s geologic conditions make it impossible for leachate 

from the landfill to contaminate ground water. The landfill is constructed on a 60-foot thick clay 

layer that lies above limestone that caps a confined, artesian aquifer. 

Ground Water Monitoring

Ground water monitoring has been required on a quarterly basis at all other active CCB facilities 

since 1982. Many parameters such as heavy metals are monitored. Discharges to all surface 

waters are under the plants’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, 

which require monitoring and reporting and establish limits protective of the environment, such 

as drinking water, aquatic life and human body contact. Water streams discharged under these 

permits include ash sluice water, storm water and miscellaneous wastewaters.

Conversion to Dry Fly Ash Handling 

Part 115 regulations require surface impoundments used for CCB disposal to be de-watered and 

closed as landfills. In anticipation of the closure of the surface impoundments and in anticipation 

of more stringent regulations governing discharges from wet CCB handling systems, the 

company converted all fly ash handling systems to dry systems over the last decade at a cost of 

about $80 million. The original wet-handling systems mixed water with CCBs to create a wet 

mixture that could be pumped to the land disposal areas. The wet systems required significant 

amounts of water and had a greater potential to release contaminants into the environment than 

the dry systems now in use. Dry fly ash systems reduce water consumption for ash handling by 

90 percent and significantly reduce the potential to release contaminants through leaching or 

direct discharge. Dry fly ash systems have the additional benefit of producing ash suitable for 

beneficial use in concrete and cement. Fly ash from wet disposal settings cannot be used in most 

beneficial use applications.

Bottom ash continues to be handled “wet” at all facilities for several reasons. Primarily, it is very 

difficult to remove bottom ash from the bottom of the boiler without water as a conveyance

mechanism. The bottom ash ponds, created for temporary storage of bottom ash, serve as a 
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reservoir for water from the plant water treatment facilities and other liquid wastes regulated 

under the plant’s NPDES permit. The bottom ash ponds are not lined, since bottom ash does not 

pose a leaching threat. 

CCB Beneficial Use

The company has been proactive in CCBs management for many years. Beneficial use results in 

significant cost savings to our customers by not having to landfill CCBs (more than $2 million 

annually) and provides useful products that minimize the use of other natural resources and 

reduce carbon emissions. For example, Consumers Energy produces about 500,000 tons of fly 

ash annually, of which 25 to 30 percent is used beneficially in concrete or in Portland cement 

manufacturing. The use of fly ash rather than limestone avoids the mining and transportation 

impacts and fossil fuel use associated with limestone mining and delivery. Consumers Energy 

produces roughly 100,000 tons of bottom ash, all of which is used in land disposal area 

construction or for cement manufacture.

The company contracts with Headwaters Resources, Inc., America’s largest manager and 

marketer of coal combustion byproducts, to ensure that CCBs are not used for structural fills 

except within landfills, are not used for land or other agricultural applications, and are not used 

for mine fill or to fill quarries or sand pits. 

Land Disposal Area Integrity — Current Status 

After the coal fly ash slurry spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in 

December 2008, Consumers Energy initiated an assessment of disposal area dike/embankment 

stability. The assessment determined that none of the disposal structures at Consumers Energy’s 

facilities presented significant safety issues. Nonetheless, the reviewing team made some 

recommendations to improve operations and reliability of the structures. These recommendations 

are being implemented in 2010 and 2011. We also are developing a vegetation management plan.

These practices will help ensure that our disposal areas continue to be safe and well maintained.

Current Issues 

There is a ground water issue at the Karn land disposal area (landfill) that warrants discussion. 

The Karn landfill was constructed over Saginaw Bay sediment in 1959. The water between 

grains of sediment under this landfill and in Saginaw Bay, directly adjacent to the landfill, 

exceeds the drinking water standard for arsenic. Yet tests on the water flowing directly out of the 

Karn landfill meets the drinking water standard for arsenic. At the nearby Weadock landfill, 

where water flowing out of the landfill also meets the arsenic drinking water standard, there is no 

arsenic exceedance in the water between grains of sediment under that landfill. We also note that 

in many other areas not associated with either landfill, water between grains of Saginaw Bay 

sediment exceed the arsenic standard. This suggests a different source for the arsenic 

contamination in the sediment than the Karn landfill.

The company believes the arsenic contamination is due to a number of sources, including natural 

arsenic concentrations in local soils, agricultural pesticides and industrial waste transported by 

the Saginaw River and deposited in Saginaw Bay. There also is evidence of the natural venting 
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of metals from naturally contaminated ground water from deep salt brine formations. The 

Michigan DNRE believed the company was not in compliance, but then found an error and 

proceeded with issuing the operating license for the facility. Today, all requirements are being 

met.

EPA Regulation of CCBs 

On June 21, 2010, the EPA sought comments on a range of alternatives to regulate CCBs:

o Alternative 1. Subtitle C regulations: CCBs would be regulated as a special waste 

under the hazardous waste regulations and be subject to EPA and state 

enforcement. Subtitle C regulation effectively phases out the use of surface 

impoundments. New landfills would have to be constructed and all existing CCB 

impoundments emptied out and CCBs disposed of in a Type 1 hazardous waste 

landfill. Under this alternative beneficial use likely will decline due to liability 

issues, even though the EPA would exempt CCBs that are wholly contained or 

encapsulated in a product. 

o Alternative 2. Subtitle D regulations: CCBs would be regulated as a solid waste 

and would be self-implemented and enforced through citizen law suits. Existing 

impoundments would have to remove solids and line or close the facility within 

five years. Subtitle D regulation would be based on engineering and design as 

opposed to performance standards.

o Alternative 3. Subtitle D Prime regulations: Existing CCB impoundments could 

continue to operate if required ground water monitoring demonstrates that the 

facility is in compliance.

The EPA’s Subtitle C proposal is surprising because on four separate occasions the EPA 

determined CCBs were not hazardous. In 2000, the EPA recommended to Congress that CCBs 

be regulated as non-hazardous solid wastes under RCRA Subtitle D and determined that “States 

have the regulatory structure in place at the State level to assure adequate management of these 

wastes.” EPA further determined that regulating CCBs under Subtitle C “would adversely impact 

beneficial use.”

The Subtitle C proposal, if enacted, could have a significant impact on the costs of electric 

generation and even the continued operation of coal-fired electric units. The company and the 

utility industry view proposed regulation of CCBs under Subtitle C as both technically difficult 

from a compliance perspective and costly relative to the potential benefit. Because of the high 

cost of regulation and the potential impact on plant closures and regional electric reliability, 

regulation under Subtitle C as proposed is not viewed as likely.

We believe that regulation under a Subtitle D with states implementing the programs according 

to EPA standards, much like the existing regulatory structure for municipal solid waste landfills 

under Subtitle D, is favorable. The other current proposal, with self-implementation of the 

requirements and enforcement by citizen suit, is an awkward and very costly scenario relative to 

traditional solid waste regulation. 
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Consumers Energy’s land disposal areas are currently in compliance with Part 115 and are based 

on municipal solid waste landfill rules developed under Subtitle D. The company would be well 

positioned to comply with the EPA’s proposed Subtitle D regulatory requirements for CCBs 

because of its history of compliance with Michigan’s Subtitle D-based solid waste regulations 

that contain many of the elements of EPA’s proposed rule, and its conversion from wet to dry fly 

ash management.

Summary

As can be seen, the company proactively and safely manages CCBs. The conversion to dry fly 

ash handling has had a significant impact on our operations, significantly reducing the amount of 

water used as well as minimizing the potential for storage area failure and release. Additionally, 

the dike/embankment assessment determined that none of the disposal structures at Consumers

Energy’s facilities presented immediate safety issues. Nonetheless, the reviewing team made 

some recommendations to improve operations and reliability of the structures which we are 

currently implementing. We will continue to actively participate in policy development to assure 

reasonable regulations of CCBs.