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Coal fired power plants use ponds for two different things. First, a settling pond is used to settle fly ash and slag out of the water. This would be water that came out of their pollution control equipment from washing down their precipitators. This would also be the general waste water from the plant drains. Dirty, grimy, and cruddy stuff. The fly ash is more gey in color, but everything else caould be pretty cruddy. You'll also see the waste water from the cooling towers pass through the settling pond. This water is high in solids, and probably warmer than desired. It'll be allowed to cool and settle out any solids before it passes into a local stream. No plant uses raw water in their steam cycle. The steam cycle water has carefully controlled chemistry to control corrosion and is free of solids. As for the color of the pond, it'll be driven by both the color of the surrounding soils and the fly ash. The solids may build up to 10 feet thick before the pond is cleaned out. Mark in Utah
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