Pollution emissions put state in top 15

Pollution emissions put state in top 15
List ranks power plants based on 2002 EPA data

BY SCOTT BARKER
barkers@knews.com

Tennessee ranked in the top 15 states for power plant emissions in 2002, according to a report by an environmental advocacy organization released Wednesday based on federal pollution data.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Cumberland Fossil Plant in Middle Tennessee produced more nitrogen oxide last year than any other power plant in the country, according to "Lethal Legacy," a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

U.S. PIRG used 2002 air-pollution data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rank the 548 power plants in the country with the highest emission levels. More than 1,100 power plants submit emissions data to the EPA.

The study provided rankings for three types of emissions: sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain; nitrogen oxide, which contributes to smog; and carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.

Tennessee ranked 13th in sulfur dioxide emissions, 10th in nitrogen oxide emissions and 14th in carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition to the Cumberland steam plant, TVA's Kingston steam plant, a half-hour drive west of Knoxville, ranks 26th in the country in sulfur dioxide emissions and 36th in nitrogen oxide emissions, the report said.

The only other TVA power plant to make the top 50 in the three categories of pollutants covered was the Johnsonville Fossil Plant near Nashville.

John Shipp, TVA's vice president for environmental policy and planning, said recently completed upgrades to the plants are already lowering emissions. TVA is spending an average of $1 million per day on pollution controls at its coal-fired plants. Plans call for spending nearly $3 billion on emission-reduction efforts by 2010.

The agency is adding nitrogen oxide controls and scrubbers to all nine power-producing units at the Kingston plant.

At the Cumberland plant, one nitrogen oxide control system is in place and another will be online by next summer, Shipp said.

"We are putting those controls on our best units. They're also the units our modeling shows will have the biggest impact on air quality," Shipp said.

U.S. PIRG blames the 548 plants covered in the report for producing 98 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions, 99 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions and 91 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity-generating sector of the economy.

U.S. PIRG and other advocacy groups, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Sierra Club and the American Lung Association, are calling on the Bush administration to rescind its recently adopted changes to the New Source Review process, which allow power plants to replace aging equipment without meeting tougher environmental restrictions imposed on new sources of pollution.

"If the administration's policies stand, Tennesseans will bear the consequences in the form of respiratory disease, acid rain, haze in the Smokies and global warming," said Jill Johnson, the regional field director for U.S. PIRG.

Scott Barker may be reached at 865-342-6309.