Muskingum River Plant

Muskingum River Plant has 14 groundwater monitoring wells, 10 of which have been polluted above federal advisory levels based on samples collected between April 07, 2010 and September 23, 2013. Groundwater at this site contains unsafe levels of barium, gross alpha particle, gross beta particle, manganese, arsenic and molybdenum.

American Electric Power's (AEP) Muskingum River Power Plant is located near Beverly, Ohio on the western bank of the Muskingum River. The plant's five coal-fired units are slated for retirement in 2015. The plant operates three fly ash reservoirs and a bottom ash pond. In 1972 and 1988, portions of the bottom ash pond dam slipped into the Muskingum River. In 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency categorized all three fly ash impoundments as having high hazard dams and the bottom ash pond as having a significant hazard dam.

According to a 2009 safety assessment conducted on behalf of AEP, the middle and lower fly ash reservoirs and the bottom ash pond have had safety issues dating to the late 1960s. The 2009 safety assessment also identified a number of seeps, erosion problems, and the need for additional stability analyses.

This facility is among the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of potential damage cases, indicating that it has potentially polluted groundwater or surface water at levels which threaten human health and the environment. For more information about Muskingum, see EIP's 2010 report In Harm's Way.