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Evergy is a utility company engaged in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in Kansas and is headquartered in Topeka and Kansas City. The EPA announced a settlement under the Agency’s Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) program with Evergy Kansas Central Inc. at the company’s retired Tecumseh Energy Center coal-fired power plant in Tecumseh, Kansas. Evergy will take certain actions to address potential groundwater contamination from a CCR impoundment at the Tecumseh site.
CCR is produced primarily from the burning of coal in coal-fired power plants. It is a large industrial waste stream by volume and can contain harmful levels of contaminants such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and cobalt.
EPA established national rules for coal ash management and disposal in order to address the risks from disposal and discharge of coal ash, including leaking of contaminants into groundwater, blowing of contaminants into the air as dust, and the catastrophic failure of coal ash surface impoundments. Evergy will install additional monitoring wells, conduct groundwater sampling and analysis, and update closure plans for the facility’s CCR impoundment.