May 26, 2010
EPA objects to EKPC coal plant air permit
Particulate pollution at issue

By Bill Robinson
Senior News Writer

WINCHESTER — The federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a letter Monday to the Kentucky Division of Air Quality formally objecting to a permit the state agency issued April 9 for a proposed coal-fired generating plant in Clark County.

The permit for the plant that East Kentucky Power Cooperative wants to build near the Kentucky River near Madison County must pass a federal review before it can take effect. EKPC generates power for numerous rural elect cooperatives including Bluegrass Energy and Clark Energy, which serve customers in Madison County.

A copy of the letter to John S. Lyons, director of the Kentucky Department of Environment Protection, was obtained by the Berea-based Kentucky Environmental Foundation and provided to the Richmond Register.

The federal regulators said EKPC had not demonstrated whether the U.S. EPA’s policy governing emission of particles 10 microns in diameter would apply, or whether the utility should perform a compliance analysis for particles as small as 2.5 microns.

EKPC based its application, the EPA letter states, on the assumption that the plants emissions would not violate national standards for emission of 2.5-micron particles. However, the EPA said the cooperative’s analysis had not followed “current accepted modeling procedures and guidance.”

The cooperative may submit a new compliance assessment that conforms to that guidance, the letter states. A 12-page document outlining the procedures was attached to the letter.

Elizabeth Crowe of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, which has steadfastly opposed construction of the coal-fired electric generating plant, said, “It’s time for EKPC to stop wasting time and money on the plant and start working on clean, affordable energy solutions.”

A recent audit of EKPC done for the state Public Service Commission was highly critical of the co-op’s financial management and called building a coal-fired generating plant “the most risky” method of meeting co-op members needs, Crowe said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will not loan money to rural electric cooperatives to build coal- and nuclear-fired generating plants, she said. But, it will loan money for conservation programs and alternative generation methods.

“Now, (the federal) EPA is opposing the air permit because the state underestimated the hazards of harmful soot emissions,” Crowe said.

Fine soot particles from coal combustion, which contain a number of toxic chemicals, can penetrate deep into the lungs and cause significant damage, or even death, she said. The Smith plant would emit an estimated 300 tons of soot annually.

“EPA actually warned the state about the inadequacies of its modeling on soot in a letter in March," Crowe said, “but the Kentucky Division for Quality issued a final permit for the Smith plant anyway,” a day before more-stringent federal standards were to take effect.

“When it comes to our health, there is no such thing as a ‘safe’ level of pollution,” said Philip Curd, a Jackson County physician and customer of Jackson Energy Cooperative, an EKPC member. “The smaller soot particles are dangerous because they can lodge in the deepest recesses of lungs, where they can cause tissue damage and where cancers can originate.”

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.