TVA: How long a dirty polluter?

TVA: How long a dirty polluter?

First of two editorials

In talks around the region, TVA executives used to brag about how the utility had extended the life of its huge coal-fired plants with an anecdote about their proverbial grandfather's axe. Grandpappy was proud, they'd say, that he'd had that trusty axe all his life. Of course, he'd put half-a-dozen new heads on it, and replaced the handle more times than he could shake a stick at. But to their granddad, it was the same ol' axe.

They used the story to show TVA's dedication to keeping its 40-year-old to 50-year-old coal plants — the backbone of TVA's power production — on line. They'd repaired boilers and furnaces, rebuilt coal shuttles and kept the plants heating steam to generate the bulk of TVA's electricity, decade after decade. But they were still the same ol' plants.

Of course, they weren't; they were continually being renewed. But while TVA managers took pride in their durability, they failed to mention that the plants' smokestack emissions mostly remained as dirty as ever.

Built mainly in the 1950s and '60s, they are exempt from stringent clean air rules imposed on plants built since 1985. And TVA is cleaning them up too slowly — or not at all.

A harmful grandfather clause

Like other utilities, TVA enjoys that prerogative under a lax grandfather clause written into the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments. That explains why electric power plants are the nation's largest single industrial source of air pollution.

Utility lobbyists argued older plants wouldn't last long enough to justify the expense of installing expensive emissions scrubbers and catalytic converters. Unmindful of the plants' potential for renewal, lawmakers went along.

The consequences are enormous.

Today, TVA's fleet of 11 coal-fired plants — with an average age of 40 years — include some of the dirtiest plants in the nation, in both relative and absolute terms. According to a comprehensive report by the Tennessee Valley Reform Coalition and five other groups urging revocation of the grandfather clause, the plants produce 73 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions and 33 percent of the nitrogen oxides released into the air in the Tennessee Valley.

Among the nation's utilities, TVERC's findings rank TVA as the second largest emitter of nitrogen oxides and the third largest of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. That is not simply because

TVA is the nation's largest utility; its emissions of key pollutants are well above national averages.

Nitrogen oxide is a principal contributor to acid rain and ground-level ozone, or smog. Sulfur dioxide is a principal component of acid rain, fine-particle particulate, ozone and regional haze. Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas.

TVA's largest power plant, Cumberland, for example, emits as much nitrogen oxide as 7 million cars — in a state of roughly 5 million people. Paradise, TVA's second largest plant, emits more sulfur dioxide than all of the coal-fired plants in the state of New York. If Paradise met new plant standards, it would emit barely one-seventh of the 212,377 tons of sulfur dioxide it dumped into the air last year.

Damage to health and nature

The impact from TVA plants on air quality and human health, and the ecological damage to crops, forests, water and wildlife, is immense.

Though supposedly a pristine area, for example, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park monitoring station shows East Tennessee has the worst summertime visibility range of any park region of the country.

Asthma and bronchitis, aggravated by fine particle sulfates from sulfur dioxide pollution and ozone, afflict increasing numbers — and not just the young or the elderly.

Crops, forests and streams show significant damage from acid rain, acid fog and dry sulfate and nitrate particles. Landowners and farmers statewide suffer large monetary losses.

In the Smokies, already long afflicted by tree die-back and dying streams, the National Park Service may soon have to post air pollution warnings, a sure turnoff to East Tennessee's vital tourism.

TVA alone isn't responsible for such health and environmental duress. But it is responsible for such a huge proportion of critical pollution that improving air quality and reversing health effects and ecological damage requires TVA's help.

TVA has made efforts at remediation in recent years, and recently promised a major reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2003. But progress is patchy, and the opportunity for TVA to demonstrate leadership in mitigating pollution remains large.

Alone or as part of a national solution to dirty, old power plants, the burden on TVA to slash pollution stands out. As difficult as it will be, TVA should grasp that challenge.