Madigan: IEPA ignoring coal-burning violations

Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office objected to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency this month over what it called its skirting of a "clear, absolute and non-discretionary requirement of federal law." In a letter, it documented more than 7,600 pollution violations since 1999 at six plants owned by Midwest Generation — five located in the Chicago area and one outside Peoria.

Madigan wants the Illinois EPA to hold off on granting new air-pollution permits to Midwest Generation until the Chicago-based utility agrees to clean up the aging plants, some of them a half-century old.

"That these violations occurred is indisputable," Ann Alexander, Madigan's environmental counsel, wrote in the Aug.

Illinois EPA Director Doug Scott said his agency takes the complaint seriously and has been meeting with the attorney general's office to see what steps can be taken. But he said the state EPA doesn't plan to require Midwest Generation to reduce the violations of opacity limits — the amount of light blocked by coal smoke — in order to receive new permits.

None of Illinois' 22 coal-fired plants, he said Monday, are exceeding the limits anywhere near the level of frequency at which the federal EPA recommends action.

"Opacity violations will happen at every coal-fired plant — they're just a natural occurrence," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "An opacity violation doesn't necessarily mean there's something in the air that's harmful. It could be steam vapor, water vapor."

The Illinois agency monitors opacity levels to help gauge whether coal plants are releasing too much pollution, which can result in asthma attacks and cause lung disease, heart problems and premature deaths.

Madigan's office, however, believes violations should be punished.

"The regulatory requirement is for continuous compliance, not compliance most of the time, and the sources have violated it many thousands of times," Alexander wrote in her letter to the EPA.

Doug McFarlan, a spokesman for Midwest Generation, said the incidents cited by the attorney general are not violations but "exceedances."

"A violation implies there's been a determination that you've violated the Clean Air Act, and Illinois EPA ... is on the record saying our operation is normal for coal-fired power plants," he said. "If you look at the record of our plants since 1999, we've made tremendous progress in cleaning them up and fully comply with every regulation."

Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of California-based Edison International, bought the plants in question from Commonwealth Edison in 1999 and sells the electricity on the open market.