Waste

PPL’s environmental policy includes responsible management of the waste produced by the company’s operations. PPL has initiatives to reduce the amount of waste generated, and recycle or beneficially use waste.

The increase in low-level radioactive waste disposal in 2008 is attributable to an ongoing project to increase generating capacity at the Susquehanna nuclear power plant and an increased amount of work conducted during the 2008 refueling and maintenance outage. The increase in hazardous waste is a result of chemical cleaning of a boiler at the Brunner Island power plant, and accounted for about 60 percent of the hazardous waste generated by PPL in 2008. The boiler cleaning is part of scheduled maintenance that takes place every five to 10 years, and some of the cleaning waste water is classified as a hazardous waste. 

PPL is beneficially using 100 percent of the coal combustion products from its Pennsylvania power plants with the approval and cooperation of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. PPL supports reasonable federal regulation of coal combustion product disposal that would enable beneficial uses to continue with appropriate environmental protection measures. Pennsylvania has effectively regulated the use and disposal of coal combustion products since the early 1990s, and encourages their use in concrete and cinder block manufacturing, as construction fill (in a stabilized form), and as synthetic gypsum used to manufacture drywall.