The Sierra Club is asking people to send in comments expressing concern about the huge new combustion waste landfill expansion that is proposed to take waste from Sunflower Electric's 2100 MW coal plant project at Holcomb, KS. We have obtained an extension of the comment period to April 6. The landfill is owned by Holcomb Common Facilities LLC a new corporation formed last year by Sunflower and their partners in the coal plant project.

The Sierra Club is calling for more study of this project. The Club's analysis of the permit application and associated documents found that the company plans to amass some 540 million cubic feet of coal ash, water treatment sludge and scrubber residues only a mile from the Arkansas River and over what the KDHE has designated as a sensitive groundwater area, and what the Kansas Geological Survey describes as highly permeable sand dunes.

The new landfill design does not call for a synthetic or impermeable liner under the waste to protect groundwater over the long term. The existing landfill was operated for 20 years with the monitoring wells in the wrong location, and insufficient data is available to assess pollutant migration.

We believe that KDHE is applying a somewhat arbitrary standard that is not appropriate for a waste material that will never break down and will sit forever over a highly vulnerable ground water resource. Sierra Club's experts have questioned what will happen after the owner is no longer required to maintain the facility... after the vegetative cover dries up, and cracks and erosion accelerate percolation of precipitation."

Info Links:
Fact Sheet on the Holcomb combustion waste landfill
Press Release on Sunflower Landfill

Submit written statements by 5 p.m. on April 6 on the proposed facility to:
Sam Sunderraj
KDHE Bureau of Waste Management
1000 SW Jackson St.
Topeka, KS 66612-1366
FAX: 785-296-1592
Email: ssunderr@kdhe.state.ks.us

Comments postmarked by April 6 and received within one week thereafter will also be considered. After the public hearing and comment period, KDHE will respond to all comments in writing.