The Allen Fossil Plant was a 741-megawatt ( MW), coal power plant located south of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. It generated electricity from 1959 to 2018. At the time of its closure, the plant was operated by

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

(TVA).

History

Memphis Light, Gas and Water The Memphis Light Gas and Water Division (MLGW) is a municipal public utility serving the city of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. Description MLGW is the largest three-service municipal utility in the U.S. with more than 420 ...

(MLGW) began construction of the Allen Fossil Plant in 1956 with commercial generation beginning in 1959. The plant was named after Thomas H. Allen, a former president of MLGW. The TVA took over plant operations in 1964 as a lease with MLGW before buying the plant outright in 1984. Allen had a generating capacity of 741 MW. TVA announced plans that Allen would be replaced with by the

Allen Combined Cycle Plant The Allen Combined Cycle Plant is a 1.1-gigawatt (1,100 MW) natural gas power plant located south of Memphis, Tennessee that began generating electricity in 2018. It is operated by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Background TVA announced plans ...

, a natural gas plant, in order to reduce emissions by 2018 set by a 2011 agreement with the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

(EPA). TVA shut down the plant on March 31, 2018.

Environmental impact

Byproducts from Allen, known as

coal combustion residuals Coal combustion products (CCPs), also called coal combustion wastes (CCWs) or coal combustion residuals (CCRs), are categorized in four groups, each based on physical and chemical forms derived from coal combustion methods and emission controls: ...

(CCR), were deposited in the West Ash Impoundment. These residuals were known to contain

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

. When the TVA released an environmental impact statement (EIS) of the impoundment in 2016, three options were generated to deal with approximately 250,000 cubic yards of CCR once the plant closed. Ultimately, the TVA opted for Alternative B. The CCR would remain in place in the impoundment, but modifications of the site would be made to minimize leachate escaping into the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, local groundwater, and nearby McKellar Lake. Groundwater monitoring equipment would also be installed at the site.

References

External links

Allen Fossil Plant
{{Authority control 1959 establishments in Tennessee 2018 disestablishments in Tennessee Energy infrastructure completed in 1959 Tennessee Valley Authority Buildings and structures in Memphis, Tennessee Former coal-fired power stations in Tennessee

History

Environmental impact

See also

References

External links