Hatfield Ferry Power Station tagged as one of ‘dirtiest’
Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station in Greene County is one of the nation’s “50 Dirtiest Power Plants,” according to a report recently released from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), a nonprofit environmental organization. EIP, which claims to be dedicated to stronger enforcement of existing federal and state anti-pollution laws, released a report indicating the 50 dirtiest plants. Hatfield, the 1,710-megawatt plant in Monongahela Township and owned by Allegheny Energy Inc., is ranked 20th overall.
Two other Pennsylvania plants made the list as well. Reliant Energy’s 572-megawatt electric generating station in Shawville, Clearfield County, ranked fifth on the list, while Allegheny Energy Inc.’s 356-megawatt Armstrong Power Station in Kittanning, Armstrong County, is listed as the 26th dirtiest in the nation.
The list ranks the dirtiest plants based on data listing emission rates of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide and mercury.
EIP ranked each of the nearly 400 total U.S. plants for which the most recent emissions and electrical generation data are publicly available, based on emission rates or pounds of pollutant for each megawatt hour (or in the case of mercury, million megawatt hours) that plants produced. Based on a combined overall ranking across all four categories, the three worst scoring plants in the U.S. were in North Dakota, according to the EIP data.
Each of the three Pennsylvania plants ranked in the top eight worst polluters in sulfur dioxide, while Shawville’s station was ranked second and Armstrong’s station was ranked fifth in pollution of mercury.
The complete list can be found online at www.dirtykilowatts.org.
EIP also stated in the report that sulfur dioxide emissions is expected to start declining over the next several years, as a significant number of coal-fired power plants will install scrubbers to either meet deadlines imposed under federal and state clean air rules or to resolve enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states.
Almost half (46) of the 100 largest sulfur dioxide emitters have either begun construction of scrubbers or have committed to install one by 2010, according to EIP.
Allegheny Energy signed contracts on July 13 for the installation of $550 million sulfur dioxide-reducing scrubbers at the Hatfield’s Ferry plant, resolving a lawsuit that environmental protection groups filed over alleged air pollution violations.
The installation of scrubbers settles a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) and supported by EIP over alleged “massive air pollution violations.”
The suit against Allegheny, which was filed in February 2005 in federal court in Pittsburgh, alleges violations of the federal Clean Air Act and Pennsylvania’s Air Pollution Control Act.
PennFuture and EIP said the agreement to install the scrubbers will result in 200 fewer premature deaths and savings of $1.2 billion is health-care costs annually.
Sulfur dioxide emissions from the coal-burning plant will be reduced by about 95 percent by 2009, when installation of the scrubber system is complete, according to Greensburg-based Allegheny Energy.
The scrubbers at Hatfield and other emission reduction work Allegheny Energy is performing at two power plants in West Virginia will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by a combined 250,000 tons compared to 2002 levels and reduce mercury emissions, the utility said.
Hatfield’s scrubbers, technically known as flue gas desulfurization equipment, will cut the emissions from its three power-generating units by 145,000 tons a year, Paul J. Evanson, Allegheny Energy’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, stated in a press release.
By 2010, the plant will produce 13,600 tons a year, according to the company.
Because the scrubbers won’t be operational until 2009, the settlement requires Allegheny to take interim steps to reduce particulate pollution. The power company will install sulfur trioxide injection system that makes fly ash, one of the waste products from burning coal, easier to remove in electrostatic precipitators, according to a PennFuture fact sheet.
Hatfield consumes 9,000 tons of coal a day to generate electricity for hundreds of thousands of customers in Allegheny’s system in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.
Herald-Standard writer Steve Ferris contributed to this article.