MOHAVE GENERATING STATION
Laughlin, Nevada
Southern California Edison was the operator of the Mohave Generating Station (MOGS) in Laughlin, Nevada and managed the plant decommissioning. MOGS was a 1,580 megawatt coal-fired electric power generation facility situated on 2,500 acres adjacent to the Colorado River. The facility contained 217 acres of storage ponds, evaporation ponds and a 300-acre landfill.
The scope of services included asset recovery, asbestos abatement, hazardous material collection and disposal, demolition, relocation of the pond contents to the onsite landfill and closure of the landfill. Asbestos abatement included the removal of friable and non-friable materials including boiler, tank and pipe insulation, floor tile and mastic, roofing transite and other materials.
Hazardous material collection included the collection and disposal of machine oil, hydraulic fluids, PCB oil, mercury switches, light tubes, ballasts, batteries and other classified wastes. Pond closure included the relocation of 1.4MM CY of material to the on-site landfill and grading of the pond berms to match the surrounding grade.
Landfill closure included constructing a buttress, grading the area to meet the required slopes, installing back drains and surface drainage swales and placing a two foot drip cap over the entire landfill. The landfill closure also required the redesign of the closure documents to reflect an early closure of the landfill prior to reaching from a 10 foot high, 5,000 square foot building to a 180 foot high steel boiler structure with a footprint of 50,000 square feet.
Demolition included the removal of the two 790MW steam turbine units, a single 500’ tall 25’ diameter concrete and brick chimney, two 180’ tall power boiler structures and all associated equipment. Support structures included fifteen buildings totaling 100,000 square feet, six evaporation ponds covering 217 acres, eight marconaponds containing 24MM cubic feet, two 200’ diameter 20 foot tall clarifloculators, two 500,000 gallon condensate tanks, eight 60’ tall cooling towers totaling 64,000 square feet and various other lube oil and miscellaneous water tanks.
The demolition also included the removal of the slabs and foundations of all structures other than the power block, cooling water channel; 330’ of 14’ diameter underground cooling water pipes; as well as backfill and compaction required to restore the site to its natural contours.
The project generated over 40,000 tons of ferrous scrap materials which were sorted, sized, and shipped by truck to local scrap recycling facilities. Additionally 1,200 tons of non-ferrous metals were recovered and shipped to various buyers directly from the site.
This project required approximately 275,000 man-hours to complete, with the crew peaking at approximately 60 workers.