LG&E Coal Ash Recycled; Land to be used for Green Space
06.28.2006


(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Charah Inc., a Louisville-based ash management company, are partnering on a project that will result in additional community green space.

LG&E and Charah will provide approximately 900,000 tons of coal ash from the utility's Mill Creek plant to back-fill a former sand mine site owned by Flynn Brothers Contracting Inc., as part of a beneficial reuse project.

Once filled with environmentally-safe coal ash, the parcel of land will be covered with a layer of soil, seeded, and donated as a community green space. The project will take approximately 30 months to complete.

Regulated power plants of LG&E, and its sister company Kentucky Utilities Company, burn more than 15 million tons of coal annually, resulting in more than 1.5 million tons of coal ash. The majority of coal ash is either stored in ash ponds on-site at power plants or is transported and safely deposited in beneficial reuse locations or in landfills.

As available storage space is becoming more limited, the utilities' parent company, E.ON U.S., has found effective ways to recycle coal ash to benefit community projects and reduce storage costs.

"In addition to saving pond space and cutting storage costs, this beneficial reuse project is another way E.ON U.S. is putting coal ash to a good use," said Mike Kirkland, General Manager of Mill Creek. "When you take a product that came out of the ground and you can put it safely back in the ground, that's about as environmentally sound as you can get."

Charles Price, President and CEO of Charah, Inc. added: "This project is one more way we're working to find creative and environmentally-sound uses for coal ash. We're proud to partner with E.ON U.S. and Flynn Brothers Contracting on this community project."

In addition to the project at Mill Creek, coal ash from E.ON U.S. power plants is being used in concrete mix, as roofing shingle granules, and as a component in cement production. In fact, LG&E supplies more than 180,000 tons of coal ash annually to CEMEX, a company that utilizes coal ash for cement production. It also has been used as fill for state highway projects and in trenches around drainage and sewer work by Louisville's Metropolitan Sewer District.

Flynn Brothers Contracting, in conjunction with LG&E and Charah, Inc., is the largest user in Kentucky of processed bottom ash for sanitary sewer trench back-fill.

E.ON U.S.'s Mill Creek, Ghent and Trimble County plants each have contracts in place to process, market and sell coal ash, as approved by State and Federal Environmental Protection Agencies, and the Kentucky Public Service Commission.



E.ON U.S., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a subsidiary of E.ON A.G., the world's largest investor-owned energy services provider. E.ON U.S. is a diversified energy services company that owns and operates Louisville Gas and Electric Company, a regulated utility that serves 321,000 natural gas and 394,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties, and Kentucky Utilities Company, a regulated electric utility in Lexington, Ky., that serves 525,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia.

Charah, Inc. is a leading ash management provider for the coal-fired electric utility industry. Based in Louisville, Ky, Charah provides a complete line of ash management services including landfill management and operations, bottom ash processing and marketing, structural fill applications, beneficial use, ash pond management and Integrated Gasification Combine Cycle (IGCC) slag beneficiation.