Bull Run Fossil Plant

Bull Run Fossil Plant has 18 groundwater monitoring wells, 12 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between February 03, 2010 and October 16, 2019. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of sulfate, cobalt, lithium, arsenic, manganese, molybdenum, boron, strontium and barium.

Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bull Run Fossil Plant has one large coal-fired unit with a net capacity of 865-MW, first operational in 1967. It is located on the east shore of the Clinch River, directly upstream from where Bull Run Creek meets the river in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in Anderson County. TVA has planned for the facility’s retirement by December 2023. There are several coal ash landfills on the site in addition to a 40-acre ash pond complex. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified Bull Run as a potential damage case. The Tennessee Valley Authority is currently in the process of converting to dry ash handling at the plant. Plant Bull Run’s Dry Fly Ash Stack Lateral Expansion CCR Unit is regulated under the CCR-rule. Bull Run Fossil Plant is among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of potential damage cases, indicating that coal ash disposal at the site has potentially polluted groundwater or surface water at levels which threaten human health and the environment.

You can find the industry reported data here. For more information on Bull Run, see EIP's reports TVA's Toxic Legacy and Coal's Poisonous Legacy.

For more information about coal ash in Tennessee, see Earthjustice's fact sheet, Tennessee and Coal Ash Disposal in Ponds and Landfill.