TODAY’S STUDY: WHERE COAL DOES ITS WORST

America’s Top Power Plant Toxic Air Polluters
December 2011 (Environmental Integrity Project)

SUMMARY

The power plants that generate electricity to run our homes, businesses, and factories are also the largest source of dangerous toxic air pollution, including mercury, lead, arsenic, and other heavy metals as well as acid gases. These toxics can cause serious environmental impacts and health effects, especially for children, developing fetuses, and vulnerable populations. Exposure to the air toxics that are emitted from coal-fired power plants can cause cancer,1 damage to the liver, kidney, and the nervous and circulatory systems,2 and respiratory effects including asthma, decreased lung function, and bronchitis.3

For decades, the electric power industry has delayed cleanup and lobbied against public health rules designed to reduce pollution. But, the technology and pollution control equipment necessary to clean up toxic emissions are widely available and are working at some power plants across the country. There is no reason for Americans to continue to live with unnecessary risks to their health and to the environment.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now under a court-ordered deadline to finalize long delayed rules to clean up emissions of mercury and other harmful power plant air toxics. In addition to lowering mercury emissions, the rule will reduce other fine particle heavy metals like arsenic, chromium, and lead, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year. EPA has estimated that the power plant air toxics rule will avoid between 6,800 and 17,000 premature deaths each year, and will result in annual savings of $48 to $140 billion.4

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Power plant toxic emissions have declined over the past decade, but the decrease is being driven by a few companies that are installing modern pollution controls while the rest of the nation’s power plants are doing very little. The data show that toxic emissions can be reduced, and have been at a number of plants, but that a strong national rule is needed to protect all Americans equally, and to force the dirtiest power plants to clean up.

In addition, a relatively small handful of the nation’s most polluting power plants generate a disproportionate amount of reported toxic emissions…

The report focuses on 6 toxic heavy metals emitted in relatively high quantities by the electric utility industry: Arsenic, Chromium, Lead, Mercury, Nickel, and Selenium. In addition, the report presents data on emissions of the acid gas Hydrochloric acid (“HCl”)…

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KEY FINDINGS

Over the years, EPA has evaluated exposures, hazards, and risks associated with at least 67 different power plant air toxics, and identified about 14 toxics of special concern. These include Arsenic, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Manganese, Mercury, Nickel, Hydrochloric acid, Hydrofluoric acid, Acrolein, Dioxins, Formaldehyde, and Radionuclides.7 This report contains information on just seven of the many toxic air pollutants that coal-fired power plants emit into the atmosphere every year.

Power plants that burn coal and oil to make electricity are the largest industrial sources of mercury, arsenic, and selenium releases into the air. The electric utility sector is the number two emitter of nickel and chromium. These heavy metals are known to have very serious human health impacts, including various forms of cancer, central and peripheral nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal effects, and liver or kidney damage.8,9

After years of inaction, litigation, study, and delay, EPA is finally poised to adopt a power plant air toxics rule that will mainly target mercury, fine particulates (which contain heavy metals), and acid gases.

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Electric power plants comprise a relatively small number of facilities, but, as shown in the graph below, their toxic emissions dwarf other industrial sectors. For example, whereas literally thousands of chemical plants and other industries reported toxic emissions to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory in 2010, only a few hundred power plants reported mercury and hydrochloric acid emissions, and only 59 power plants reported selenium emissions. Yet, despite the relatively small number of facilities, electric utilities emit more arsenic, mercury, selenium, and hydrochloric acid than any other industrial sector, and the utility industry emits the second highest total emissions of chromium and nickel of all industry sectors.

In recent years, some states have taken steps to protect the health of their residents by requiring power plants to reduce toxic emissions, mainly mercury. The chart below shows the declining trend in emissions of toxic metals from the electric power sector from 2007 to 2010.

Since 2002, 17 states have enacted laws to limit mercury pollution,10 and mercury emissions in states such as Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, and New York are on the decline, due in part to the passage of state laws requiring power plants to install modern pollution controls.11 In addition, state and federal enforcement actions have forced some power companies to install modern pollution controls, which reduce mercury and other (non-mercury) metals.12 Thus, many of the nation’s power plants have already demonstrated that pollution reductions are readily achievable through available pollution controls such as sorbent injection, baghouses, sulfur dioxide scrubbers, and selective
catalytic reduction, shuttering inefficient and outdated units, or switching to cleaner fuels.

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But despite these gains, many of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, and some states, continue to resist efforts to cut toxic air pollution. For example:

• Over the past decade, power plant arsenic emissions have dropped significantly in Virginia (from almost 10,000 pounds reported in 2000 to 352 pounds reported in 2010) and in Tennessee (from almost 8,000 pounds in 2000 to 637 pounds in 2010). Power plant arsenic emissions have also dropped in New York, North Carolina, and other states. But, power plant arsenic emissions in Georgia, Indiana, North Dakota, Texas, and Utah have remained flat or seen only modest reductions in power plant arsenic emissions over the past decade. Montana has reported a steady rise in that state’s power plant’s arsenic emissions over the past decade. Pennsylvania – by far the largest state in terms of power plant arsenic emissions – has actually increased its reported power plant arsenic emissions over the past decade, from 15,861 pounds reported in 2001, to 17,666 pounds of arsenic reported in 2010.

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• Over the past decade, power plant lead emissions have declined in several states including North Carolina and New York. But, power plant lead emissions have held steady in Texas and West Virginia. From 2009 to 2010, power plant lead emissions actually increased in sixteen states.

• Power plants in Arkansas reported more chromium emissions in 2010 than plants in any other state, due almost entirely to the newly-built Plum Point Energy Station, which reported 12,179 pounds of chromium, or 90 percent of the state’s reported total in 2010.

Even while overall toxic power plant emissions are declining, a few of the nation’s dirtiest power plants continue to emit high levels of toxics into the air. The following pages contain information and rankings of the nation’s top 20 percent of the dirtiest power plants on a pollutant-by-pollutant basis for six heavy metals and one acid gas (hydrochloric acid).

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Compiling a single ranking of the nation’s most polluting power plants for toxic emissions is a challenge for several reasons. First, a pound of one toxic is not equivalent to a pound of another toxic in terms of health and environmental dangers. Second, power plants emit disproportionate amounts of one pollutant as compared to another. For example, power plants emit significantly more selenium and nickel than they do mercury and arsenic, in terms of sheer pounds. Third, the number of power plants reporting emissions of each chemical varies greatly from chemical to chemical. For example, only 59 power plants reported selenium emissions in 2010, whereas 479 plants reported lead emissions.

Table 1, below, presents one snapshot of the nation’s most toxic power plant air polluters, by ranking the nation’s power plants based on total pounds emitted of four highly toxic heavy metals: arsenic (Ar), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg).

As shown above, the top 20 biggest emitters of arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury released a total of 105,302 pounds, or almost 53 tons, of these four highly toxic metals into the nation’s air in 2010.

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State Rankings for Toxic Power Plant Emissions

The electric utility sector is the top emitter of arsenic, mercury, selenium, and hydrochloric acid of all industry sectors, and the utility sector is the second highest emitter of chromium, cobalt, and nickel of all industry sectors. Electric utilities also release high quantities of lead into the air each year. Based on these toxics as key indicators, five states – Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and Texas – are the top five states for power plant toxic emissions.

Table 2, State Averages of Eight Hazardous Air Pollutant Rankings, lists fifteen states by their average rank, based on each state’s13 ranking for the listed chemical. Power plants in fifty-two U.S. states and territories (including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) reported toxic emissions in 2010, according to EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory. Idaho, Rhode Island, and Vermont reported no electric utility toxic emissions.

Some states not appearing on the list above still have high levels of power plant toxic air emissions. For example, power plants in Arkansas, Iowa, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico top the rankings for some toxic emissions, as detailed in the following pages…