Alexander calls on TVA to lower emissions at 3 coal-fired plants

Alexander calls on TVA to lower emissions at 3 coal-fired plants

By ANDY SHER
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said Wednesday he wants a "concrete" commitment from TVA officials to install state-of-the-art equipment to control soot by 2010 at three East Tennessee coal-fired power plants.

In a letter to Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman Glenn McCullough, Sen. Alexander said he does not think counties near the Great Smoky Mountains, including some in the Knoxville and Chattanooga areas, will meet federal requirements for "healthy air" unless TVA puts scrubbers on each unit at the John Sevier, Bull Run and Kingston plants.

TVA spokesman Gil Francis said agency officials had not yet seen the letter and could not respond to the senator's request.

"He is the chairman of the TVA (congressional) caucus, and we respect his viewpoint and his passion for clean air," Mr. Francis said.

He said TVA now spends $1 million a day on air pollution requirements and has spent more than $4 billion since the 1970s to clean up its fleet of coal-fired power plants.

Officials at the federal Environmental Protection Agency last Friday said several East Tennessee counties, including Hamilton and Knox, are among 225 nationwide violating air quality standards for particulate matter.

In his letter, Sen. Alexander states that TVA's John Sevier, Bull Run and Kingston power plants "pour about 210,000 tons per year of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) into our air. Such SO₂ emissions chemically combine in the atmosphere to form particulate matter."

While TVA officials have said the agency intends to install smokestack scrubbers at Kingston and Bull Run by 2010, Sen. Alexander said the utility also needs to amend its operating permits to reflect that and also provide scrubbers for the John Sevier plant.

Mr. Francis said that, as of the end of 2004, TVA will have reduced its generation of particulates at the three plants from 210,000 tons to 139,000 tons. He said that by the end of 2011, TVA's particulate emissions are projected to be about 50,000 tons.

The federal utility plans to spend $750,000 to $1 billion on smokestack scrubbers at Bull Run and Kingston and intends to have them up and running by the end of 2010, Mr. Francis said.

"There are no immediate plans to install scrubbers at John Sevier, and we estimate the cost of scrubbers would be between $300 million and $400 million" at that plant, he said.

Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy praised Sen. Alexander's letter. "We're heading for a real mess the first few months of next year," he said.

In addition to Hamilton County, Catoosa and Walker counties in Georgia also exceeded the new fine particle standards. Other Tennessee counties in violation are Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and part of Roane.