Feb 11, 2008 By Amy Zalar 3 min read

While Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station is taking the necessary steps to reduce sulfur dioxide from air emissions by installing $750 million scrubbers at the plant, state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty expressed disappointment that it took a lawsuit to get the action to occur. McGinty, speaking to the Herald-Standard Editorial Board last week, said the company has a track record of non-compliance with federal law and has not been forward looking. She said it cost the state $1 million to go through documentation just to be able to file the lawsuit.

“It was one of the dirtiest,” McGinty said.

McGinty said although the scubbers will not be in service until later this year, the company has been using coal imported from western states that has lower sulfur content.

Once the desulfurization scrubbers are on line, McGinty said the plant would once again utilize 100 percent Pennsylvania coal.

Construction is under way, and the first of Hatfield’s three electric power generation units will be in service between October and December, Mark Scaccia of Allegheny Energy previously said. The scrubbers for the other two units will be activated in three-month intervals following the first scrubber.

Hatfield’s, located in Monongahela Township, Greene County, burns 3.5 million tons of coal a year to produce 1,710 megawatts of power. The scrubbers are designed to remove 95 to 98 percent, or 140,000 to 150,000 tons, of sulfur dioxide from the flue gas annually. Scaccia said the scrubbers also would reduce the amount of particulates and mercury in the plant’s air emissions.

McGinty also said she was disappointed that the federal government did not agree to a suggestion to give the power plant money to build a new plant but was instead intent on getting the pollution controls enacted.

“We had proposed instead of forcing them to install $800 million in pollution-control devices, we would have preferred to give the money to them to build a new plant,” McGinty said.

She said her proposal would have ensured better environmental protections in the long run.

In addition to Hatfield’s Ferry, McGinty also mentioned that the Duke Energy natural gas plant across the Monongahela River from Hatfield is experiencing problems because of steep increases in the cost of natural gas.

“They can’t afford to run the plant because the fuel is four times more expensive than the design estimates,” McGinty said.

However, she said Duke Energy has expressed an interest in participating in a coal gasification project in which coal would be “gasified” and the carbon would be captured so it doesn’t go into the air. She said possibly gypsum could be added to turn the product solid and it could then be disposed of.

“We need to find ways not to burn coal,” McGinty said.