CHARLESTON, W.Va. - State dam safety engineers will begin a "comprehensive review" of seldom-inspected coal-ash impoundments across West Virginia, Department of Environmental Protection officials said Wednesday. Read the map

DEP Secretary Randy Huffman announced the move a month after a similar impoundment in Tennessee broke, sending more than a billion gallons of wet coal ash pouring over homes, fields and streams.

"In light of what happened in Tennessee, we have put together a plan to review and inspect each of the fly-ash impoundments in the state," Huffman said. "We want to assure the public that these structures are being looked at to ensure that they meet current dam safety standards for protection of the public."

Under the plan, DEP will require dam owners to provided updated inspection reports from company engineers, including evaluations of structural stability.

DEP officials said they would also require dam owners to provide "verification of any risk for reservoir break-through into operating, inactive, or abandoned underground mines."

Brian Long, chief of DEP's dam safety section, said most of the coal-ash dams are located near power plants, and not in the vicinity of old underground mine works.

"This is just something we want to verify," Long said Wednesday. "We're just trying to cover all of the possible situations we could face."

In addition, DEP staffers will document each impoundment and reservoir through aerial photographs taken from the agency's helicopter. Then, DEP dam safety engineers will conduct detailed ground inspections of each dam.

"The condition of each structure will be documented through photographs and written inspection reports," DEP said in a news release. "Instructions for any required additional investigations, operational changes or repairs will be provided to the owner."

State dam-safety inspectors haven't examined most of the coal-ash dams in West Virginia for more than five years, according to agency records.

Under federal and state strip-mine laws, government officials inspect coal-slurry impoundments monthly. But coal-ash dumps are exempt from the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - State dam safety engineers will begin a "comprehensive review" of seldom-inspected coal-ash impoundments across West Virginia, Department of Environmental Protection officials said Wednesday. Read the map

DEP Secretary Randy Huffman announced the move a month after a similar impoundment in Tennessee broke, sending more than a billion gallons of wet coal ash pouring over homes, fields and streams.

"In light of what happened in Tennessee, we have put together a plan to review and inspect each of the fly-ash impoundments in the state," Huffman said. "We want to assure the public that these structures are being looked at to ensure that they meet current dam safety standards for protection of the public."

Under the plan, DEP will require dam owners to provided updated inspection reports from company engineers, including evaluations of structural stability.

DEP officials said they would also require dam owners to provide "verification of any risk for reservoir break-through into operating, inactive, or abandoned underground mines."

Brian Long, chief of DEP's dam safety section, said most of the coal-ash dams are located near power plants, and not in the vicinity of old underground mine works.

"This is just something we want to verify," Long said Wednesday. "We're just trying to cover all of the possible situations we could face."

In addition, DEP staffers will document each impoundment and reservoir through aerial photographs taken from the agency's helicopter. Then, DEP dam safety engineers will conduct detailed ground inspections of each dam.

"The condition of each structure will be documented through photographs and written inspection reports," DEP said in a news release. "Instructions for any required additional investigations, operational changes or repairs will be provided to the owner."

State dam-safety inspectors haven't examined most of the coal-ash dams in West Virginia for more than five years, according to agency records.

Under federal and state strip-mine laws, government officials inspect coal-slurry impoundments monthly. But coal-ash dumps are exempt from the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

In West Virginia, power plant ash impoundments are covered by the state's Dam Safety Act.

Under that law, coal-ash dams must meet the same stability and stormwater retention standards as coal-slurry dams, DEP officials have said.

The state dam safety law required periodic inspections of coal-ash dams by engineers hired by the dam owners. But it does not mandate inspections by the state monthly, quarterly or even annually.

In a news release, DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said agency engineers "conduct inspections on the impoundments that are considered to pose a potential hazard to human life."

Six of the state's 16 coal-ash impoundments are classified by DEP as "high hazard." That means they are located where their failure "may cause loss of human life or major damage to homes, other buildings, utilities or roads."

The median time since DEP inspected those six impoundments is four years, according to agency records. Two of those impoundments were inspected in 2008. The others were inspected in March 1991, October 1993, November 2004 and May 2005, according to DEP records.

DEP classifies the state's other 10 coal-ash impoundments as "significant hazard." That means their failure may cause minor damage to homes and other buildings, and the "potential for loss of human life" is considered "unlikely."

The median time since DEP inspected those 10 impoundments is more than eight years, according to agency records.

DEP officials also revealed Wednesday that they had discovered two other coal-ash impoundments that were not on previous lists released by the agency. Complete details on those impoundments were still being compiled, officials said.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com

or 304-348-1702.