For environmental and national security reasons the byproducts from electric generation at the Campbell should be processed and used for industrial purposes, rather than buried and lead to environmental problems and risks. A study has found that US coal ash contains $8.4B in rare earth elements. Other byproducts can also be commercially used. I would encourage investigation of use of its wastewater for a closed loop cooling system in an AI data center that could be co-located on the Campbell complex, to take advantage of a portion of the Campbell’s generated electric. The exploratory committee for a locally controlled electric cooperative is seeking support of the Trump Administration to do with the Campbell precisely what the Administration has been promoting: colocation of a data center next to coal and other fossil fuel plants. Data centers depend heavily on electric and water for their operations, two things the Campbell offers.
We are currently on the cusp of commercially economic methods of extracting rare earth minerals from coal fly ash. This is important, because so far China has been decisively winning the rare earth minerals race, placing the USA in national security danger. The USA therefore needs to develop sources for its own rare earth minerals production, and coal fly ash represents one of the most likely avenues for doing so.
We need to protect our valuable water resources from contamination. Industrial use of byproducts from electric generation from coal is important to avoid the contamination that otherwise occurs when byproducts are simply buried in some fashion.