Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. is cleaning up a minor spill of fly ash from a leaking pipe near its Sunbury power plant in Shamokin Dam.

PP&L discovered the spill about 2 p.m. Thursday (11/14), said Robert E. Ruffaner, PP&L's Sunbury area community development director. Power plant operators flushed the pipeline with clean water, then shut off the leaking line. The leak occurred between Old Trail and Route 15, a short distance from the plant fence.

"We notified the Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and took immediate action to stop fly ash from getting into a nearby small stream," Ruffaner said.

The stream flows under the power plant and into the Susquehanna River. An undetermined, but small, amount of ash reached the stream and the river, he added.

PP&L crews are cleaning up ash that collected on the ground where the pipe leak occurred, and are repairing the pipeline.

The 10-inch diameter pipeline carries a mixture of water and fly ash from the power plant to an ash settling basin about two miles west of the plant. The mixture contains about 7 percent ash. Fly ash is the powdery residue of coal burned in the power plant's boilers.