Workers at PPL’s Brunner Island power plant in York County, Pa., have cleaned up a small leak of bottom ash from a pipeline that runs from Unit 3 to an ash processing facility on site. The leak occurred this morning.

When the leak was discovered at about 10 a.m., plant operators immediately turned off the pumps and stopped the flow of water through the pipeline, which runs parallel to the plant’s discharge channel to the Susquehanna River.

"Most of the ash from the leak collected on plant property in a trench near the pipeline. A small amount, enough to fill an average-size wheelbarrow, made its way to the river and was immediately cleaned up," said Dennis Murphy, vice president and chief operating officer of Eastern Fossil and Hydro Generation for PPL. "There has been no evidence of any ash downstream from where it entered the river. The leak has been stopped and repairs are being made to the line."

The company has notified the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Bottom ash is a heavy, inert material that when mixed with water settles quickly. PPL processes the bottom ash and sells it for use in construction materials. For example, the plant provides bottom ash to East Manchester Township to use as anti-skid material on roads. Plant crews are working to clean up the ash that settled in the trench by the pipeline.

Minor leaks in the plant’s three ash pipelines occur occasionally but are usually confined in the pipeline trench in the ash-basin area. This leak is located where the pipeline goes through a concrete culvert under a road and then up a hill. A small amount of water and ash flowed back over the road and down to the riverside, Murphy said.

The Brunner Island power plant has three coal-fired units and the generating capacity to produce more than 1,400 megawatts.

PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL), headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at www.pplweb.com.