State Line Energy plant's smoke a bad habit
Advocacy groups say State Line Energy allowed to continue violating air permitHAMMOND -- For more than six years, a Northwest Indiana power plant has repeatedly belched out smoke so thick it violates air pollution laws and aggravates respiratory illnesses for residents nearby.
The coal-fired State Line Energy power plant near the Indiana-Illinois border in Hammond exceeded its permit limit for smoke thickness more than 1,700 times since the beginning of 2004. The company claimed to have valid excuses for some of the violations, but had no justification for 927 of them.
The reason for the violations? Outdated pollution control equipment.
"Every day, every week, every month that plant doesn't get cleaned up means people are getting hurt," said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental programs with the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. "The pollution that's coming out of that plant is harming people's health and it's killing people. It causes hospitalizations. It shouldn't be occurring. It's not what they're being allowed to emit."
Twenty-four people die every year, 38 people have heart attacks and 420 have asthma attacks from the air pollution emitted from State Line, according to a study released by the anti-coal organization Clean Air Task Force.
Even though state records show State Line violated its air permit 927 times over six years without explaining itself, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management has not issued any fines and has no pending enforcement action against the plant.
When the Post-Tribune asked why IDEM hasn't enforced, IDEM spokesman Rob Elstro did not provide an answer.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency initiated enforcement against the company in April 2009 citing 4,770 minutes of smoke violations from 2004 through 2008. EPA has not reached an agreement with plant owner Dominion, said EPA spokeswoman Phillippa Cannon.
"That's still an ongoing enforcement matter. It hasn't been resolved," Cannon said. "I can't really comment on it any further."
To get State Line to fix its problems, the Respiratory Health Association, the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council have filed a notice of intent to sue.
"Why isn't anybody enforcing their existing air pollution permit? The Indiana Department of Environmental Management certainly didn't seem interested in pursuing them. It remains to be seen what U.S. EPA is going to do," Urbaszewski said.
The Post-Tribune asked Dominion why it's taking so long to correct the violations.
"At State Line, Dominion strives at all times to comply fully with applicable environmental laws and regulations," Dominion spokesman Jim Norvelle said in an e-mail. "Dominion recently received the notice of intent to sue, and is currently evaluating State Line's compliance with opacity limits."
He would not comment further because of the threat of litigation.
State Line boiler fifth-dirtiest
To comply with their permits, most power plants use modern air pollution removal equipment called baghouses -- the equivalent of a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks up air pollution so it doesn't go out the stack. State Line uses a baghouse on only one of its two boilers. The other operates with old and inefficient equipment.
In fact, the boiler is the fifth-dirtiest in the state based on the amount of nitrogen oxide pollution it puts out per unit of coal it burns. That's according to a Post-Tribune analysis of 2009 emissions data that power plants and manufacturers across Indiana reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Nitrogen oxide contributes to acid rain and particles that lodge deep in the lungs of people who breathe them. That aggravates respiratory illnesses, triggers asthma and has been linked to premature death.
EPA's enforcement alleges that State Line is emitting significantly more pollution than it used to. It's also more than company officials told state and federal regulators it would be emitting after it made modifications to the plant. The company made significant modifications without installing the best available pollution control equipment as federal law requires, EPA said.
Urbaszweski estimated a baghouse could cost anywhere from $10 million to $30 million. He said the plant could also solve its problems by using an alternative fuel source, such as natural gas, instead of coal.
In an interview with the Post-Tribune in September, Norvelle indicated that Dominion wasn't planning to make "significant" investments at the plant.
"We're going to operate State Line in accord with environmental regulations," he said. But "we're not going to make significant capital expenditures in the future at State Line. We may have to do something other than ... I'll leave it at 'alternative methods.' Is there another fuel method available? I don't know those things."
State could force compliance
Environmentalists say IDEM could force the company to stop the violations by including a deadline for correcting the problems in State Line's new air permit. IDEM has been in the process of renewing the plant's permit for more than a year.
"They're violating their permit. If you issue a new one you've got to have a time table for them to comply. ... What's the point in having a permit if you don't follow it?" Urbaszewski asked.
IDEM's Elstro said in an e-mail that IDEM is "developing its response to comments" on the permit renewal.
"The agency wants to insure that it fully addresses comments received from the public in a way that is satisfactory to EPA and provides useful information to Hoosiers," he wrote.
Meanwhile, Dominion's discussions with EPA continue. Environmentalists hope their impending legal action will "sharpen a decision point for the company" and forcing it to decide how to stop the violations.
"It's in their interest to draw out the discussions (with EPA) as long as possible," Urbaszewski said. "When you get caught, you start to negotiate. Time is money for them so the longer they can run this plant without these standards, the more money they're making because they haven't spent any money to fix them. EPA accused them of violations over a year ago and they haven't spent a dime to fix it. Who knows how long those discussions could go on."
Another of Dominion's plants -- in Salem Harbor, Mass. -- was sued earlier this year by environmentalists for opacity violations.
http://www.post-trib.com/news/2765284,n ... 26.article
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