Perdue Faces Power Plant Issue
Published: Fri, Jan. 23, 2009 12:30AM
Modified Fri, Jan. 23, 2009 06:16AM
Gov. Beverly Perdue, who has said North Carolina needs to do more to clean up Western North Carolina's air, is facing her first environmental test.
An early decision confronts the new administration in the form of Duke Energy's request to state regulators to treat the company's 800- megawatt coal-burning power unit under construction as a minor pollution source.
The huge new unit is being built at the existing Cliffside Steam Station on the border of Rutherford and Cleveland counties, west of Charlotte. It will allow the closing of four older Cliffside units.
"We haven't done enough to protect air quality in the mountains, quite frankly," Perdue said earlier this month, when introducing her new secretary for Environment and Natural Resources, Dee Freeman.
But so far, to the alarm of some environmental groups, state air regulators appear inclined to agree to Duke's request.
Levels of pollution
Designating the new unit as a minor pollution source would allow Duke to avoid the public process of analyzing and installing the most modern controls to reduce hazardous pollution to the maximum extent possible.
Duke has contended that the controls it is designing for the Cliffside unit are the best possible, so it shouldn't need to go through the lengthy review to determine the best technology.
"It's an unnecessary expense not only for the customers, but for the state regulators," said Tina Worley, a Duke spokeswoman. "We feel it's an unnecessary expense because we're confident we can meet the requirements for a minor source."
Last year, a coalition of environmental groups sued, challenging Duke's construction of the new Cliffside unit without an analysis of the maximum pollution controls needed.
In December, U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg sided with the environmental groups and ruled that Duke was "simply refusing to comply with the controlling law."
Thornburg said the new Cliffside unit 6 is a major source of hazardous air pollutants because it can emit pollutants above the legal threshold. He ordered the utility to analyze the technology needed for maximum control of pollutants.
If Duke receives a favorable ruling from the state, it is likely to argue that the federal court no longer has jurisdiction.
Under the federal Clean Air Act, any new power plant or industry that emits 10 tons per year of a hazardous air pollutant or 25 tons or more of air pollutants collectively is a major pollution source. The law requires that those sources have the most modern and efficient pollution controls.
Duke's numbers change
For three years, Duke had said the new plant would emit far more than that -- an estimated 217 tons of hazardous air pollutants a year, including more than 170 tons of hydrogen chloride, which returns to Earth in rain and makes streams more acidic.
Acting on that information, state air regulators issued Duke a permit early last year, designating the new unit as a major pollution source. Actual construction of the project is more than 11 percent complete.
In October, Duke changed tacks and told state air regulators that emissions from the new Cliffside plant would be much lower -- less than a tenth of what the company earlier projected.
Duke said the new unit would qualify as a minor pollution source, based on tests of new pollution controls at its Marshall Steam Station and redesigned pollution controls at Cliffside.
"The reason we did not pursue this at first is we didn't have all of the information we have today," said Worley, the Duke Energy spokeswoman. "We're taking data from Marshall and improving it for Cliffside."
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Friday 23 January 2009 - 09:08:41
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