Kentucky Cave Confirmation Kills Proposed Landfill Development

Inside Kentucky’s Wentworth Cave. Photo via Kentucky Division of Waste Management

Plans to build a coal ash landfill in Kentucky have been halted after a permit was denied last week by the Kentucky Division of Waste Management.

For the last two years Louisville Gas and Electric had hoped to build a 218-acre coal ash landfill near its Trimble County Power Station in northern Kentucky so it can move away from its ash storage ponds that are at capacity along the Ohio River.

Those plans have been in question since the fall of 2011, when the existence of a cave on the property, potentially protected by Kentucky’s 1988 cave protection law, came to light.

Despite LG&E maintaining that it is merely a “karst feature” and not protected under the law, the Kentucky Division of Waste Management has now determined that the feature, dubbed Wentworth Cave, meets the laws definition of a cave, a decision that effectively stops the project from continuing at that location.

LG&E is now looking at its alternative site for the project which is expected to add an additional costs of $85 to $115 million over the life of the landfill.

LG&E Landfill Plans Cave In [madisoncourier.com]