The Owensboro Municipal Utilities board on Thursday revised their decommission plans for the Elmer Smith Station, deciding instead to completely demolish the station. They also decided to demolish the Plant A/Plant 1 facility.
As of Thursday, the Elmer Smith Station has had all oil and chemicals drained for disposal, removed all CCR material from the ash pond area, and removed major conveyors and all friable asbestos abatement.
Originally, OMU voted not to complete a full-stack demolition, as they anticipated a high cost for the demolition along with the long-term operation and maintenance of the stacks in the meantime. The full demolition was estimated to cost around $41 million, while a stack removal alone was only projected to cost $21.9 million at the time.
The remaining demolition work at the Elmer Smith Station includes removing remaining non-friable asbestos, both stacks, and brick liner from the FGD stack. OMU plans to save the historic front facade but remove the remaining coal and conveyor equipment.
After completing a bid review, the demolition team noticed it would be financially feasible to complete a full demolition of not only the Elmer Station, but the Plant A facility as well.
The work at Plant A would entail removing all asbestos and lead/PCB paint from the structure, plus demolishing the main plant structure, all below-grade structures including the 3-million- and 1-million-gallon reservoirs and the upper portion of the intake structure.
As of Jan. 1, officials reported that OMU had spent $13.8 million in decommissioning efforts and had about $8 million left in the budget to cover the remaining costs.
The recommendation was approved unanimously among the commissioners.
