Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) Hydrographic Ash Pond Survey

Regulation changes are effecting the useful like of power plants. Being proactive, Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) made plans for the closing and capping of their fly ash settlement ponds. To accomplish this, IPL hired DLZ to perform a hydrographic survey of the ash ponds at the Harding Street, Eagle Valley, and Petersburg power plants in Indiana. IPL chose DLZ due to our firm’s extensive history surveying in power plants for Sargent and Lundy. We performed hydrographic ash pond surveys of all the active sites. In addition, DLZ established ground control for a subcontracted aerial flight of the entire survey areas. In order to collect additional data, the Eagle Valley and Harding Street power plants required a second mobilization.

The firm used our remote-controlled Z-boat for the hydrographic ash pond surveys to maximize efficiency and safety. Outfitted with RTK GPS and a single beam echo-sounder, the Z-boat was deployed by our survey crew. The Z-Boat did not require traditional ramps and could easily transfer between ponds. All of this, while operating remotely from shore.

To serve as a base point for GPS control, DLZ utilized an OPUS static position. This was provided by the National Geodetic Survey. We collected data in the corresponding Indiana State Plane Coordinate System. In addition, A 4×4 amphibious vehicle was utilized on the large flat areas to increase topographic survey data collection efficiency. Furthermore,  DLZ was able to cover large areas in a short amount of time.