Wednesday, January 12, 2000
Toxic emissions down 8%
Power plants are a major source
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Tristate manufacturers cut their toxic emissions by about 8 percent in 1998, according to an environmental report released Tuesday.
But six local power plants emitted nearly four times the amount of toxic chemicals as all local manufacturers combined. Utility officials say those emissions are not likely to decline soon.
For the first time, an annual toxic release inventory compiled by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce includes information from the six coal-burning power plants that keep the Tristate's lights glowing.
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HIGHLIGHTS OF REPORT
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The toxic release inventory study, compiled by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, rounds up data from local companies required by federal regulations to report their emissions of toxic chemicals. Local manufacturers work with about 100 of the more than 600 chemicals that must be reported. Among the latest findings:
• Overall emissions from 174 manufacturers were down 8 percent in 1998 compared with 1997.
• Air emissions from manufacturers were down 19 percent; land emissions were up about 8 percent; and water emissions were largely unchanged.
• Data from local power plants were added for the first time since reporting started eight years ago. The numbers show that power plants emit nearly four times as much toxic chemicals as all other manufacturers combined.
• Three plants — Beckjord, Miami Fort and Tanners Creek — produce more than 70 percent of the total power plant emissions.
• The three chemicals most often released to the air all stem from coal-burn ing for electric power — hydrochloric acid, 13 million pounds; sulfuric acid, 4 million pounds; and hydrofluoric acid, 1 million pounds.
• Leading toxic metals in the report include arsenic, barium, chromium, copper, magnesium, nickel and zinc. Nearly all these metals come from fly ash generated as a byproduct of coal burning. Most of this ash winds up buried in landfills. Some gets recycled into raw material for drywall. Small amounts get released to air and water.
• None of the utility emissions, not even the three plants with the highest emissions, violates environmental regulations.
• Studies using several worst-case assumptions, such as a person living 70 years at the point of maximum exposure, indicate that cancer risks from local power plant emissions are less than 1 in 2 million.
• East Coast states claim emissions from Midwest power plants contribute to ozone and acid rain problems. Midwest utilities dispute the extent of the problem.
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Those six plants — four run by Cinergy Corp., one by American Electric Power and one by the city of Hamilton — emitted 22 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the local environment in 1998. That compares with 6.4 million pounds of toxics emitted by 174 area manufacturers.
Further, the new data show that three older power plants — Beckjord, Miami Fort and Tanners Creek — emit far more toxic chemicals than the three newer plants.
Environmentalists say the new report confirms their long-held belief that the old power plants should be replaced with modern ones. Yet utility officials say they cannot justify spending hundreds of millions to fix or rebuild facilities that do not violate environmental regulations and do not pose clear health risks.
“We don't have any plans at this time (to install scrubbers to clean smokestack emissions),” said Bob McElfresh, a senior scientist at Cinergy. “We're within national air quality standards.”
However, Ned Ford, energy committee chairman for the Sierra Club's Ohio chapter, contends that old power plants in the Midwest are contributing to air pollution problems from here to the East Coast.
“Some people say that cars are a bigger source of air pollution. And that might even be true. But here in Ohio, we don't have any authority over the auto industry,” Mr. Ford said. “Ohio does have the authority to do something about the power plants. The problem is there's no political will.”
The fate of old power plants comes up amid turbu lent times for pollution control nationally and in the Tristate.
Regular smog alerts of the past few summers have led to the unpopular E-check program for southern Ohio drivers and threats of an industry-limiting regulatory crackdown. More recently, Northern Kentucky drivers have faced tougher auto emission testing.
Nationally, automakers have been pushed to step up efforts to develop low-pollution cars. Meanwhile, East Coast states have sued Midwest utilities over Eastern officials' belief that pollution from coal-burning power plants contributes to acid rain and makes it harder to meet ozone-control regulations.
For several years, manufacturers of all stripes have been required to file public reports detailing the types and amounts of toxic chemicals they use. The toxic release inventory estimates how much of those chemicals get emitted to the surrounding air, water and land.
Until now, however, utilities have been exempt from those reporting requirements. Now, one report can compare the pollution from power plants and the manufacturing sectors.
The 174 local manufacturers, as a group, emitted 3.4 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in 1998.
Cinergy's Beckjord plant near New Richmond released 5.4 million pounds of toxic chemicals to the air; Cinergy's Miami Fort station emitted 5.2 million pounds; and AEP's Tanners Creek plant in Lawrenceburg, Ind., emitted 5 million pounds.
None of those plants has the latest scrubbers.
Cinergy's Zimmer plant in Moscow, Ohio, has a scrubber system. It emitted 1.6 million
pounds of toxic chemicals. Cinergy's East Bend station, in Rabbit Hash, Ky., also has a modern scrubber. It emitted 0.7 million pounds.
But Zimmer's scrubber system cost about $300 million, said spokesman Steve Brash.
Beyond the cost, Cinergy may not have room to install a scrubber at the Beckjord plant, where the smokestacks were built right along the Ohio River. A scrubber facility would either extend into the river or would have to be built on the other side of a turbine building with duct work running over the building to the stacks, Mr. Brash said.
Even if a scrubber could be installed, utility officials contend the health risks of the pollution are too low to justify the costs.
Cinergy has recently studied the potential cancer risk from the toxic emissions at its Beckjord and Miami Fort plants. Even under worst-case conditions, Beckjord's emissions present a less than 1 in 2 million risk of causing cancer. Miami Fort's cancer risk is about 1 in 10 million.
Both are well below the 1 in 1 million risk needed to trigger regulatory action, Mr. McElfresh said.
Pat Esposito, president of Environmental Technologies and Communications Inc., said pollution from coal-burning power plants is part of the price all Americans pay to have cheap electric power.
The pollution won't end until the public decides it's worth the cost — either to build better coal-burning plants or to switch to other less-polluting, but more expensive, forms of energy.
“The report drives home how big those plants are,” Ms. Esposito said. “But the reason we have big power plants is because we're the ones using the electricity. They're making it for us.”
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