"Trimble Coal Ash Pond Worries Environmentalists"

"An expanded LG&E ash pond next to the Ohio River in Trimble County would have 100 foot tall walls and store more ash than burst across hundreds of acres in Tennessee last year.

The ash pond, part of LG&E’s expansion of its power plant near Bedford, sits on the floodplain of the Ohio River, roughly 30 miles upstream from Louisville’s drinking water intake.

LG&E and Kentucky Division of Water officials said the bigger ash pond will be safe, but environmentalists argue the plan was approved before last year’s 5.4 million cubic yard ash slide in Tennessee and should be reconsidered.

Representatives of the Kentucky Waterways Alliance and the Sierra Club plan to raise their concerns about the size of the pond Thursday in Bedford at a public hearing scheduled to consider a new wastewater discharge permit for the power plant."

James Bruggers reports for the Louisville Courier-Journal November 3, 2009.