TVA considers contracts to reduce plant pollutants

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The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing to spend an additional $320 million on selective catalytic reduction systems to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions at its coal-fired plants. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, praised TVA's nitrogen oxide reduction efforts but expressed concern about the agency's approach to particulate matter and sulfur pollutants.

We've been very pleased with TVA's response to dealing with its nitrogen oxide pollution, which is a real threat to the Smokies and to public health. But we remain very concerned about TVA's efforts in addressing particulate matter and sulfur pollutants.
Stephen A. Smith

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TVA considers contracts to reduce plant pollutants

KNOXVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing to spend another $320 million to reduce smog-causing pollutants at its coal-fired plants.

TVA Directors Glenn McCullough and Skila Harris, meeting in Olive Branch, Miss., on Thursday, will consider two proposals to buy more selective catalytic reduction systems to further reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.

The federal agency is planning to add $270 million to its contract with Alstom Power Inc. and $50 million to its contract with Cormetech Inc. to supply the systems, raising the total price of their contracts to $540 million.

Alstom Power, which employs more than 600 people in Chattanooga, makes the catalytic systems. Cormetech, which opened a plant last year in Cleveland, Tenn., supplies catalysts.

In all, TVA expects to spend nearly $1 billion on nitrogen oxide-reduction systems at 25 of 59 coal-fired units at seven plants. TVA estimates that will cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent over 1995 levels.

The plants are Allen in Memphis; Cumberland near Nashville; Bull Run and Kingston near Knoxville; Widows Creek and Colbert in northern Alabama, and Paradise in Kentucky. Cumberland and Paradise have been ranked among the top nitrogen oxide polluters in the country.

"We began this program in 1998 as a voluntary strategy to help improve our regional air quality," TVA spokesman Gil Francis said. "We now need to make these improvements to meet upcoming regulations."

Nitrogen oxide from coal-fired power plants and cars mixes with other pollutants in sunlight to create ground-level ozone, a precursor to smog that causes respiratory problems, particularly for the young and the old.

TVA estimates it already has cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 40 percent.

"We've been very pleased with TVA's response to dealing with its nitrogen oxide pollution, which is a real threat to the Smokies and to public health," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "But we remain very concerned about TVA's efforts in addressing particulate matter and sulfur pollutants."

TVA, the country's largest public power producer, provides electricity to nearly 8 million people served by 158 distributors in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.