TVA works to cut pollutants while meeting power needs

TVA works to cut pollutants while meeting power needs

By Julie Ball, Staff Writer
Aug. 16, 2003 9:29 p.m.

ASHEVILLE - For Sylva restaurant owner Jason Kimenker, it's almost embarrassing.

Taking a friend from out of town on the Blue Ridge Parkway, only to have mountain views blocked by a thick haze.

"They ask me what the haze is, and I have to explain the conditions," he said.

Kimenker knows cars, factories and power plants all contribute. But in Western North Carolina, the finger is often pointed at one entity in particular - the Tennessee Valley Authority.

As one of three TVA directors, Bill Baxter admits the federally run utility - with its 11 coal-fired power plants - is part of Western North Carolina's air quality problem.

"We're easy, we're big, we've got a big target on our back," he said.

But Baxter also points out that automobile emissions and pollution from other areas of the country, including inside North Carolina, also are contributing.

"If you fix the TVA part of the problem, you haven't fixed all of the problem. You're not going to be completely happy with your air quality in Asheville, North Carolina, after we get done with our program if everything else isn't addressed," Baxter said during a interview with the Citizen-Times last week.

TVA is in the middle of a multibillion-dollar effort to install modern pollution controls at its coal-burning plants. The utility already has spent about $3 billion, according to John Shipp, TVA vice president of environmental policy and planning. By the end of the decade, TVA will spend another $2.6 billion.

A court ruling last week could put pressure on the utility to do even more.

In what some environmental groups are calling a landmark decision, a federal judge ruled an Ohio utility violated clean-air regulations when it modified one of its plants without adding pollution controls.

"TVA is going to have to look at this case very seriously," said Scott Gollwitzer, staff attorney for the environmental group, Appalachian Voices.

About TVA

TVA is unlike any other utility. Congress created it in 1933 with many missions, including flood control in the Tennessee River Basin, navigation, economic development and power generation.

"TVA is unique because we are a federal agency. You have a lot of power companies, but they don't have the stewardship responsibilities we have," authority spokesman Gil Francis said.

TVA doesn't directly provide electricity to consumers but sells it to 158 distributors. They, in turn, serve about 8.3 million customers in seven states.

In 2002, TVA's revenues were $6.8 billion.

About 60 percent of the authority's power is generated from 11 coal-burning plants equipped with 59 boilers.

Another 30 percent comes from nuclear facilities. Up to 9 percent can be generated through hydroelectric facilities such as Fontana Dam in Western North Carolina.

Just one-tenth of 1 percent is generated from green sources such as wind and solar power.

Since the 1970s, TVA has made reductions in the pollutants coming out of its coal-burning plants.

Reductions in sulfur emissions have been the result of the acid rain provisions of the Clean Air Act, Shipp said. Sulfur dioxide from power plants contributes to acid rain and haze.

Nitrogen oxide emissions, which contribute to harmful ozone, also have been dropping at TVA plants since about the late 1990s.

By the end of this decade, 25 of TVA's coal-burning boilers will be equipped with selective catalytic reduction equipment that reduces the nitrogen oxide emissions. Nineteen boilers will have scrubbers to remove sulfur emissions. That should reduce overall sulfur dioxide emissions by 85 percent over 1970s levels and nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent.

"TVA, in my view, is on track to do its part," Baxter said.

But some environmental groups say deeper reductions are needed to improve visibility and overall air quality in the southeast.

"TVA has made some voluntary commitments that are impressive and commendable, but no, it's not enough," said Ulla Reeves, regional air director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

TVA vs. EPA

The Clean Air Act amendments grandfathered older coal-burning plants belonging to TVA and other utilities but required companies to install modern pollution controls if the old plants were ever modified.

The definition of a modification was a source of dispute between utilities and the Clinton administration's Environmental Protection Agency.

In a recent Ohio case stemming from Clinton-era lawsuits, a judge ruled that $137 million worth of work done at the Ohio plant went beyond routine maintenance and required the installation of pollution controls.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal predicts the Ohio ruling will, "embolden and encourage other litigation perhaps by other states in other parts of the country" pushing for cleaner air.

TVA is one of a number of utilities embroiled in lawsuits over work they did on some of the older plants and whether that work was a modification or merely routine maintenance. The EPA has claimed TVA made modifications at seven plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky without installing new emissions-reducing equipment.

Baxter maintains the Ohio ruling is a separate case and won't directly affect TVA.

"Obviously, TVA was not a party to that lawsuit, so we're not affected by that. But I think the common interpretation of it is you've got one court going one way and one going another way. We'll see which way it goes," he said.

The court "going the other way" was a federal appeals court that ruled in June that EPA must prove TVA violated the Clean Air Act in a district court.

"The ruling didn't weigh in on any of the merits of the case. It really was a procedural issue," said John Millett, spokesman for EPA.

EPA has not taken any action against TVA since the ruling. "We're reviewing the case to determine next steps," Millett said.

Adding to the uncertainty is a Bush administration push for changes in clean-air regulations that environmentalists say will weaken the law.

Meeting future needs

Despite the controversy over coal-fired plants, Baxter believes the country's energy future lies in burning coal.

"Coal is a very important part of our economy. For us to talk about stopping burning coal is irresponsible in my opinion," he said. "We should be continuing to burn coal for another 200 years. We've got 200 years of coal in the ground in this country that we don't have to go to war to get. The problem is coal pollutes the air. So we've got to learn how to burn it cleanly. We've got to keep burning it but burn it more cleanly."

TVA is taking another look at coal gasification, according to Baxter.

Gasification involves a chemical process to create a synthetic gas from coal. Burning the gas is much cleaner, according to Shipp, TVA vice president of environmental policy and planning. But the process is less reliable and more costly.

Baxter said TVA looked at the process several years ago, but opted instead to restart one of its existing nuclear reactors. Nuclear energy, he said, also will play a growing role in the nation's energy supply.

"I think nuclear has to play a larger role in our country's energy future," he said.

Meanwhile, some Western North Carolina residents, like Kimenker, want TVA to look for cleaner options.

"I would certainly hope they can see the bright potential of alternative sources," Kimenker said.

TVA is planning to invest in additional wind turbines, Baxter said.

Right now, wind contributes less than 3 megawatts to TVA's roughly 31,000-megawatt capacity. Shipp said TVA wants to expand that to 30 megawatts.

But one of the problems with wind is placement of the turbines on mountain ridges. Wind energy in the region is also more likely to be produced at night, when there's less demand.

"Wind is certainly making progress. The cost on wind is coming down more than solar," Baxter said. But, he added, the region is not as "wind-rich" as other parts of the country, making wind power more of a challenge.

Contact Ball at 232-5851 or JBall@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.