About 35 people attended the first of two public meetings conducted by Dynegy’s parent company Vistra Thursday afternoon at the David S Palmer Arena.
The topic was the planned handling of coal ash, produced by the old power plant north of Kickapoo State Park. The plant operated from the mid 50s until November of 2011, and the coal ash produced by the plant is in three separate ponds in the flood plain near the National Scenic Middle Fork River.
Vistra says the project should be completed by the year 2033. It involves building a landfill on the footprint of the old power plant, and then gradually drying the coal ash and moving it to the new landfill. This will be a long process, with an estimated two years needed to get the landfill permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which would then be followed by tearing down the old plant so the landfill can be constructed.
In addition, the panelists said the first thing that will need to be done at the start of tearing down the old power plant is bringing in asbestos contractors to handle the asbestos buildup around the old boilers.
The Vistra panelists took questions from the audience, but declined to speak one-on-one to any members of the media at the conclusion of the meeting.
