The state has made its final agreement with Talen Energy for the fly ash spill that contaminated the nearby watershed.
Talen Energy has settled an agreement to pay more than $1 million to state agencies to settle a claim spurred from a 2005 fly ash spill at Martins Creek Power Plant in Lower Mount Bethel Township.
Nearly 11 years after the spill, the claim will require Talen to pay $952,150 to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission in what they refer to as "natural resource damages," according to a DEP news release issued last week.
On Aug. 23, 2005, when the plant still produced coal, fly ash -- a waste product of coal -- spilled from a containment basin. The basin burst and about 100 gallons of a mixture of fly ash and water spread across local fields and into both the Oughoughton Creek and the Delaware River.
According to the release, $902,150 of the $952,150 is being allotted to the Delaware River Basin Committee to fund dam removal projects in the Delaware River. The additional $50,000 will be made as a separate payment, tailored to mussel restoration projects to the Delaware, the DEP said.
Colleen Connolly, community relations coordinator for the DEP, said she believes the money Talen is to pay is sufficient and will adequately cover restoration projects of the creek and river from the 2005 spill.
"I believe that it's enough to hold the company accountable (for the spill)," Connolly said.
Talen Energy is to pay an additional $373,050 to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for projects to restore the river in a separate agreement.
The total cost for Talen Energy to settle all the claims is $1,325,200.
Talen Energy Director of Corporate Communications George Lewis said Talen Energy is satisfied with the deal.
Lewis said this payment resolves all allegations against the company regarding the 2005 spill. The company, in total, will have paid approximately $35 million to clean up and restore the Delaware River and Oughoughton Creek, Lewis said.
Following the 2005 spill, investigators determined the mussel population had been affected negatively in the surrounding watershed.
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Experts have explained in the past that fly ash may contain arsenic, mercury, lead and other substances that can possibly hurt fish, vegetation and other river life.
The coal-firing units at Talen Energy stopped running in September 2007 at its Martins Creek location, according to company spokesman Todd Martin.
Talen Energy, a spin-off company of Allentown-based PPL, is now using natural gas to generate electricity at the Martins Creek site, eliminating the possibility of fly ash spills in the future.
Independent experts have not found traces of fly ash since March 2006, when cleanup was finished. The Pennsylvania Department of Health also made clear that local residents did not experience any negative effects from the spill, as they were never directly exposed to the fly ash.
The DEP sought comment from the public when it originally proposed the $1.3 million settlement in July 2015. The comments and the DEP's responses to them can be found here.
The settlement agreement can be found here.
Ashleigh Albert is lehighvalleylive.com's Russell J. Flanagan Memorial news intern. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.