Rule rollback lets power plants go full steam

Apr. 10--Six power plants, including two in Cambria County -- Colver Power Project and Ebensburg Power Co. -- will now be able to operate under modified Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, resulting from a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policy.

The emissions standards for the sub-category of electric utility steam generating units, which use fluidized bed boilers to burn eastern bituminous coal refuse left behind from generations of local mining, are:

--Hydrochloric acid (HCl): 4.0 pounds per million British thermal units or 4.0 pounds per megawatt-hour

--Sulfur dioxide (SO2): 6.0 pounds per million British thermal units or 9.0 pounds per megawatt-hour

For context, the 2012 MATS emission level for SO2 was set at 2.0 pounds per million British thermal units, according to the EPA's report that was issued on Thursday.

EPA created the new specifications for the plants after it "reevaluated the data available when the 2012 MATS rule was established, in addition to data generated since promulgation of that rule, and has determined that there are differences in the acid gas hazardous air pollutant emissions from EGUs firing EBCR and those firing other types of coal (including those firing other types of coal refuse, such as anthracite coal refuse)," according to an official statement.

Cambria Cogen was originally considered for the modified rules, but recently closed.

Another local plant, the Seward Generating Station, which was described as "among the best performing EGUs -- with respect to HCl emissions," in the official EPA policy, was excluded.

"The Seward units were also designed and constructed with downstream acid gas controls already incorporated, so they do not have the space limitations and other configurational challenges that may affect other smaller existing EBCR-fired EGUs attempting to retrofit air pollution controls," the EPA stated in the 55-page document. "Retrofitting air pollution controls to an existing EGU can often be challenging due to lack of available space within the facility and the potential need to re-route the exhaust gas stream to accommodate such equipment configurational changes."

Supporters of the modified standards contend that creating the sub-category will allow the plants to remain operational, thereby supplying jobs and providing an environmental benefit by removing the piles of waste coal, while not requiring costly upgrades to the facilities.

"In order to comply with MATS, as far as the acid gas portion of the MATS rule, we would have had to increase the amount of limestone in the boiler by like 50%," said David Sims, general manager, Northern Star Generation, a Texas-based company that owns the Colver Power Project. "To give you an idea, we capture about 93% of the sulfur. To meet that acid gas limitation, we would have to go up to like 98%.

"But to go up that little incremental amount means about another 50% limestone injection into the boiler, like another 100,000 tons of limestone a year, which is just not inexpensive to do that."

Mike Ewall, founder and director of Energy Justice Network, pointed out that the two plants create more than 80% of the hydrochloric acid emissions in Cambria County. They also account for a combined 3 million pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent.

"They're the biggest polluters in the county by far," Ewall said.

Local, state and federal elected officials have, for years, supported modifying the standards for the refuse plants. Former U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Allegheny, from what was then the 12th Congressional District, authored the Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act, which called for specialized rules.

"It's precisely the customized regulation that we were looking for," Rothfus said during a telephone interview.

"This idea that one size fits all was the mantra under the Obama Administration. They couldn't recognize the value that these specific plants were providing in cleaning up the environment. This isn't de-regulation. It's smart regulation."

The plants, in Rothfus' opinion, provide an important environmental benefit by helping reduce boney pile coal that can pollute water and burn uncontrolled if caught on fire.

"It's gratifying to see that they finally acted and we can continue to have these jobs in Cambria County and western PA and continue to clean up those hillsides and streams," Rothfus said.

State Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor Township, 72nd Legislative District, added: "They actually are cleaning up these old boney piles in our communities. They're doing a good thing for the environment, especially locally here. If those co-gens aren't here to take care of those old coal refuse piles that we have all over our area, we'd be forgotten about. Nobody would fix them."

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey supported modifying the plants' standards for years.

"This EPA rule will allow coal refuse facilities across Pennsylvania to remain operational, saving good paying jobs in the process," Toomey said.

"This is a fight I led in the Senate for several years. I appreciate the willingness of (EPA) Administrator (Andrew) Wheeler and his staff to work with my office on this important matter."

Cambria County's two congressmen -- U.S. Rep. Glenn "G.T." Thompson, R-Centre, 15th Congressional District, and U.S. Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair, 13th Congressional District, also spoke in favor of the changes.

"Given Pennsylvania's history, refuse plants are reclaiming our lands and cleaning up the environment," Thompson said. "This will save jobs in rural areas of the commonwealth while also providing energy. EPA made the right call to keep these facilities operating and working for Pennsylvania."

Joyce said the new policy is "an important step to strengthen America's energy independence."

Wheeler, in a press release statement, said, "While fixing this technical issue proved too complex or insignificant for the Obama-Biden Administration, President (Donald) Trump has made clear that using environmental regulations to put our energy industry or rural communities out of business is not acceptable."

Ewall considers the specific guidelines for the facilities, which include Grant Town Power Plant (two units) in West Virginia and Scrubgrass Generating Company LP (two units) in Pennsylvania, to be another erosion of environmental protections.

"The more corporate control there is over the government, the more you tend to see the public health not be protected when it comes to pollution issues in particular," Ewall said. "We see that, of course, a lot under Trump's EPA. And we've been seeing that for as long as I've been involved, for 30 years now, in Pennsylvania, under all administrations."

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