Dominion Virginia Power’s $35 million water-treatment facility at Possum Point power plant has been shut down since September.
Dominion Virginia Power’s $35 million water-treatment facility at Possum Point power plant has been shut down since September to make the process of treating water steeped in toxic coal ash more effective and efficient, two Dominion spokesmen said this week.
But Prince William County officials say the move is due at least in part to concerns about levels of selenium still turning up in the treated waste water, according to Supervisor Frank Principi and Tom Smith, head of Prince William’s solid waste division.
“It’s all about the selenium. The discharge of the selenium was higher than what was anticipated,” said Principi, D-Woodbridge.
The county filed a lawsuit against Dominion in February to challenge contaminant limits set in a permit the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued the utility in January, which allowed the water to be treated and released from the single remaining coal ash pond at Possum Point into Quantico Creek. The two sides settled out of court after Dominion agreed to more stringent contaminant triggers.
Read Full Story: Coal-ash water treatment suspended at Possum Point