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SW: →August 2010: TVA Announces Plans to Retire Widows Creek Units 1-6: section added
==August 2010: TVA Announces Plans to Retire Widows Creek Units 1-6==
On August 24, 2010 TVA announced that it will retire 9 coal-fired generating units totalling about 1,000 megawatts of capacity at three locations beginning in fiscal year 2011: [[Shawnee Fossil Plant]] Unit 10 in Kentucky, [[John Sevier Fossil Plant]] Units 1 and 2 in Tennessee, and [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]] Units 1-6 in Alabama, including six units at the [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]]. In addition TVA stated that it will going to eliminate 200 jobs at these plants starting in 2011, but the workers will be placed in other positions within TVA. CEO [[Tom D. Kilgore]] said that TVA would replace the sidelined coal power with greater reliance on nuclear power and energy efficiency.<ref>[http://www.tva.com/news/releases/julsep10/coal_plants.html "TVA to idle 9 coal-fired units,"] Tennessee Valley Authority press release, August 24, 2010.</ref>
===Drinking water contaminated with hexavalent chromium from coal may cause cancer===
A report released by EarthJustice and the Sierra Club in early February 2011 stated that there are many health threats associated a toxic cancer-causing chemical found in coal ash waste called hexavalent chromium. The report specifically cited 29 sites in 17 states where the contamination was found. The information was gathered from existing EPA data on coal ash and included locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virgina and Wisconsin. In Alabama, the TVA [[Colbert Fossil Plant]] in Tuscambia and the TVA [[Widows Creek Fossil Plant]] in Stevenson were both reported as having high levels of chromium seeping from unlined retention ponds.
As a press release about the report read:
::Hexavalent chromium first made headlines after Erin Brockovich sued Pacific Gas & Electric because of poisoned drinking water from hexavalent chromium. Now new information indicates that the chemical has readily leaked from coal ash sites across the U.S. This is likely the tip of the iceberg because most coal ash dump sites are not adequately monitored.<ref>[http://www.examiner.com/green-culture-in-mankato/coal-ash-waste-tied-to-cancer-causing-chemicals-water-supplies "Coal ash waste tied to cancer-causing chemicals in water supplies"] Alicia Bayer, Examiner.com, February 1, 2011.</ref>
==Plant Data==
