Fly Ash Sales Reach Record Level in 2005.

UNDERWOOD, N.D. -- A record 417,000 tons of fly ash was sold from Coal Creek Station in 2005 by Headwaters Resources. Fly ash is the lightweight, fine ash produced when coal is burned in power plants.

"Coal Creek Station produces some of the best fly ash in the nation, and that is reflected in the steady growth of sales in the past 10 years," says Al Christianson, business development consultant for Great River Energy.

A Great River Energy process improvement team at Coal Creek Station established a goal in 1996 to increase fly ash usage as a way to increase net revenues and reduce landfill disposal costs. Sales were 90,000 tons in 1996, and have grown over the past 10 years to 417,000 tons this past year.

A bulk of the high quality fly ash is used throughout the Upper Midwest to replace a portion of Portland cement in concrete production. Concrete made with fly ash is stronger and more durable than concrete made with cement alone, making it a value added and highly desired product. Sales also increased because of continued shortages of portland cement in many parts of the nation this past year.

The increased sales have also resulted in many environmental benefits including a reduction in landfill acres as much of the fly ash is now beneficially used and a reduction in greenhouse gases as fly ash is used to replace a portion of cement which is energy intensive to produce.

Since 2003, Great River Energy has been a Champion of EPA's Coal Combustion Products Partnership to promote the benefits of coal combustion products - including fly ash. As a C2P2 Champion, Great River Energy has developed and committed to goals to increase the use of fly ash.

As part of that commitment, Great River Energy and Headwaters Resources have invested over $27 million in infrastructure to increase fly ash sales, including the construction of an 85,000-ton fly ash dome and terminals in Minnesota and Colorado.

Great River Energy has received numerous awards for efforts to increase fly ash sales, including a recent national first place environmental achievement award through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C2P2).

Great River Energy (www.greatriverenergy.com) is a not-for-profit electric generation and transmission cooperative providing wholesale electric energy and related services to 28 distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin serving more than 600,000 members, or approximately 1.7 million people. Great River Energy is the second largest power supplier in Minnesota, in terms of generating capacity, and the fourth largest utility of its type in the United States.

Serving more than 100 coal-fueled power plants, Headwaters is the nation's largest manager and marketer of coal fly ash.