TERRE HAUTE —
Indiana ranks third worst in the Great Lakes region for coal-fired plants emitting airborne mercury pollutants, according to a new study from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international non-profit environmental organization.
The June study lists 25 coal-fired power plants the NRDC states are responsible for half of the Great Lakes region’s mercury pollution. Duke Energy’s Wabash River Station, north of West Terre Haute, ranks ninth on the list.
In the Great Lakes region, there are more than 144 coal-fired power plants which emitted more than 13,000 pounds of mercury into the air in 2010. The Wabash River Station released 295 pounds of mercury emissions in 2010, according to the study, which used U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data and estimates.
The Great Lakes region includes the five Great Lakes (Erie, Ontario, Huron, Michigan, and Superior) and the eight surrounding states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Wisconsin.
A dozen power plants in Ohio and Indiana — owned in whole or part by American Electric Power — accounted for 19 percent of all mercury emitted in 2010 from the total of 144 coal-fired power plants in the region, the study states.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that coal-fired power plants are the largest man-made source of mercury pollution, accounting for 50 percent of mercury air emissions in the United States, the study states.
Mercury emitted into the air from coal-fired power plants is by far the leading man-made source of mercury reaching the Great Lakes and the lakes, rivers, and streams of the Great Lakes region, the study states.
Eating poisoned fish is the primary cause of mercury poisoning of humans. Mercury is a neurotoxin that harms the brain, heart, central nervous system, kidneys, lungs, and immune system. Young children and developing fetuses are most at risk, and can suffer developmental problems from mercury poisoning, the NRDC study states.
The EPA recently issued nationwide rules to require coal-fired power plants to limit airborne mercury emissions and other toxic air pollutants by 2015. Air emissions from the Wabash River Station may soon be drastically cut before new federal air emissions standards take effect.
Duke Energy spokeswoman Angeline Protogere said four power units — units 2, 3, 4 and 5 — at the Wabash River Station “will be retired in the 2014 to 2015 time period.”
“We are still looking at our options for unit 6. At the end of this month, we will be making an environmental compliance plan filing with state regulators” which will entail what Duke Energy plans to do with unit 6, Protogere said.
The power station site remains a place that Duke Energy could consider for any future power generating needs, Protogere said.
The power plant’s Unit 1 is owned by the Wabash Valley Power Association and is powered by a synthesis gas produced at an adjacent coal gasification plant.
Thomas Cmar, an attorney for NRDC’s Chicago office, said the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) would reduce 90 percent of current mercury emissions across the country and on average about 88 percent of other toxic air emissions such as lead, arsenic and acid gases.
However, Cmar is concerned over U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., filing of a Congressional Review Act, called Senate Joint Resolution 37, that would void EPA health standards for reducing mercury and toxic emissions and permanently block EPA from re-issuing similar safeguards.
“In the 1990s, Congress passed a law called the Congressional Review Act, which allows, in this case, the U.S. Senate to vote on a resolution to disapprove of a rule issued by a federal agency, like the EPA,” Cmar said.
“If a senator can get a petition with the signature of 30 senators on it, he can file that petition and as a result, it triggers this process whereby the resolution has to come up for a majority vote,” which is less than the usual 60 senators needed for most pieces of legislation to come to a vote, Cmar said.
“This is a serious threat to critical public health protection embodied in EPA’s new standards,” Cmar said. “It would effectively gut an entire critically important provision of the Clean Air Act, disapproving of the mercury and air standards.”
Cmar said he expects the resolution to go before the Senate for a vote next week. “A vote has to take place within 60 days of when the [EPA] rule goes into effect and the deadline for that is June 18, so the vote has to happen before June 18,” Cmar said.
Cmar said the benefits of air toxic pollution controls outweigh the costs of installing pollution control equipment.
“The EPA’s estimate is that these standards would prevent 11,000 premature deaths every year; nearly 5,000 heart attacks; 130,000 asthma attacks; 540,000 days where people missed work and school. The health benefits [of MATS] is estimated to be between $37 billion and $97 billion” in 2016, compared to $9.6 billion in compliance costs of facilities, such as the Wabash River Station, Cmar said.
“This is a critically important set of safeguards that will protect our health, and especially our children’s health, from mercury and other toxic pollution that have serious consequences,” Cmar said.
Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.
Local & Bistate
Related Photos
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Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Pollutant problems: Members of the Nature Conservancy pass by the Duke Energy Wabash River Station May 15 north of the city.
Discussion
Indiana 3rd worst regionally in airborne mercury pollutants
Duke’s Wabash River Station on list of 25 worst offenders in Great Lakes region
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