Head of group faults TVA coal-fired plants

Head of group faults TVA coal-fired plants
By Kristen Hebestreet
Press Outdoors Writer

Old coal-fired power plants owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority should meet the same environmental standards as modern utilities, a speaker said Tuesday at a League of Women Voters meeting.

TVA's 11 coal-fired power plants put out 73 percent of the sulfur and 33 percent of the nitrogen oxides released into the air in the Tennessee Valley. Those smokestack emissions damage human and environmental health, Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition Executive Director Stephen Smith said.

TVERC is a coalition of 20 environmental advocacy groups in TVA's seven-state area. TVA is the largest power producer in the United States and the nation's largest consumer of coal.

"TVA is directly responsible to you," Smith told league members at the Johnson City Country Club. "They need to hear from you that environmental stewardship is an important part of their mission."

TVA's coal-fired power plants are an average 40 years old and therefore are exempt from some of the emissions laws regulating the newer utilities, Smith said. Although TVA and other utilities built before 1985 are presently allowed those higher emissions, Smith said that legal loophole should be closed so the old plants are forced to compete economically with more modern, cleaner technologies.

"The old power plants have a competitive advantage," Smith said. "If they had to meet the exact same standards as a brand-new power plant, electricity would cost more."

But the new technology — such as wind power, solar power and photovoltaics — that would replace the coal-fired plants would allow people "to breathe easier," he said.

That new technology also would help preserve the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which had ozone levels that exceeded human health standards for a record-breaking 43 days last year, Smith said.

The John Sevier Steam Plant in Rogersville is the closest to the Tri-Cities and the smallest of all the TVA's coal-fired power plants in seven states, Smith said.

Because of the age of the plant — it was brought on line 1955-57 — the old boilers put out the third-largest sulfur dioxide emission rate in the TVA system. John Sevier emitted 68,826 tons of sulfur dioxide in 1997 and 11,350 tons of nitrogen oxide.

Just turning off the lights can improve the air quality in the Tennessee Valley. According to TVERC, a household with an electric bill of $100 per month uses 6 tons of coal per year and releases into the atmosphere 210 pounds of sulfur dioxide, 121 pounds of nitrogen oxide and 30,996 pounds of carbon dioxide.

If TVA meets its present goals, the utility will reduce its present emissions by 168,000 tons by 2003, TVA spokesman Gil Francis said later during a telephone interview.

"We have been working on this clean-air reduction for quite some time and continue to do so," Francis said. "TVA has spent $2.3 billion since 1967 to improve air quality in the Tennessee Valley. The coal-fired power plants have been upgraded with scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators and low (nitrogen oxide) burners."