Alabama Power cited as state's biggest polluter

Friday, August 11, 2000

Alabama Power cited as state's biggest polluter

By TOMMY STEVENSON
August 10, 2000

TUSCALOOSA - Two environmental advocacy groups charged Wednesday that Alabama Power Company is the state's biggest polluter, adding 34 million pounds of pollutants to the air and water each year, according to federal Environmental Protection Agency figures.

"The EPA data tells us what we've suspected for years - that electric power plants are the biggest source of toxic air pollution," said Kirsten Bryant, of the Alabama Environmental Council, on Wednesday.

A local spokesman for the electric utility countered that the EPA numbers the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Alabama Environmental Council are reporting are unremarkable since Alabama Power is by far the largest burner of coal in the state.

"The EPA, the same agency that released these figures, says that these emissions are not at levels that pose public health concerns," said J.G. Brazil, Alabama Power's media relations representative for the Western Division.

"We have to burn coal to provide the electricity that Alabama consumers demand," he said.

The figures contained in a report from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Alabama Environmental Council entitled "Toxic Power" analyzes emission data reported for the first time in 1998 to the EPA under the new Toxic Release Inventory program.

Although other industries have had to report pollution data to the EPA since 1987, utilities have had to do so only since 1998.

The two groups called the numbers "astonishing" and said electric utilities, which rely heavily on fossil fuels, "are the single worst source of toxic pollution in the state and nation."

The two groups reported that the six Alabama Power Company coal plants in Alabama, including the south Greene County plant between Forkland and Demopolis, emitted 20.9 million pounds of air pollution and a total of 34.5 million pounds of all types of pollution in 1998.

Of the six Alabama Power plants, the Greene plant was reported as the second largest producer of air pollution, with 4.7 million pounds released in 1998, and the fifth in total pollutants, with 5.3 million pounds emitted.

"If we want clean and healthy air, the logical place to start is cleaning up the oldest and dirtiest of Alabama's power plants," Bryant said.

Brazil said while neither he nor any other Alabama Power Company officials had seen the two organization's "Toxic Power" report late Wednesday afternoon, he is confident that his company is complying with all applicable laws and is actively working to reduce emissions as much as possible.

"One out of every 60 employees at Alabama Power Company has direct, full-time environmental responsibilities, we have in place an aggressive environmental compliance and auditing program to insure that we comply with all laws and regulations, and we feel that we are environmentally responsible and that we are committed to doing our part," he said.

Ulla Reeves, of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the report is aimed at getting Alabama's congressional delegation "to support comprehensive federal legislation that would require all utilities across the U.

S. to meet modern standards."