U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
DOJ, (202) 514-2007; TDD (202)
514-1888
(Washington, D.C. - April 24, 2006) The air quality in North Dakota and
surrounding regions will improve significantly because the federal government
and the state of North Dakota are requiring two utilities to reduce emissions of
two harmful pollutants by more than 33,000 tons per year.
The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today
announced settlement of a case alleging violations of the New Source Review (NSR)
provisions of the Clean Air Act against Minnkota Power Cooperative and Square
Butte Electric Cooperative—member-owned rural utilities—that will reduce
emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by about 23,600 tons per year and nitrogen
oxides (NOx) by more than 9,400 tons annually from the Milton R. Young Station—a
lignite coal-fired power plant near Center, North Dakota. This is the first NSR
settlement with a power plant utility in the Western United States.
Sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides cause severe respiratory problems and
contribute to childhood asthma. These pollutants are also significant
contributors to acid rain, smog and haze, which impair visibility in national
parks. Air pollution from power plants can travel significant distance
downwind, crossing state lines and creating region-wide health problems.
"The substantial reductions in SO2 and NOx emissions from the M.R. Young
Station, a very large source of air pollution in this area of the country, will
have an extremely beneficial impact on air quality in North Dakota," said Sue
Ellen Wooldridge, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's
Environment and Natural Resources Division. "We are pleased that Minnkota and
Square Butte have decided to come into compliance and take on the responsibility
for reducing the pollution from their plants."
"Today's settlement again demonstrates this administration's commitment to
secure major pollution reductions and to achieve the benefits envisioned by the
Clean Air Act," said Granta Y. Nakayama, EPA assistant administrator for the
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "EPA is committed to taking
vigorous, nationwide enforcement action to ensure that companies make compliance
with the standards of the Clean Air Act a top priority."
EPA estimates that the pollution controls and other measures required by today's
consent decree would cost the utilities more than $100 million.
Today's settlement resolves allegations that modifications at the M.R. Young
Station triggered NSR requirements including the requirement to obtain permits
and install the best available control technology (BACT). The allegations are
similar to others made by the federal government as part of an initiative to
bring operators of coal-fired power plants into compliance with the NSR
provisions of the CAA. In 2005, the M. R. Young Station was the second largest
source of NOx pollution in the nation by pounds of NOx per megawatt hour.
Under today's proposed consent decree, the utilities will install pollution
controls at each of the two M. R. Young steam-generating units. At M. R. Young
Unit 1, they will install a new state-of-the-art SO2 pollution flue gas
desulfurization device (scrubber) to reduce SO2 emissions by at least 90
percent, and Unit 2 will upgrade its existing scrubber to attain SO2 emission
reductions of 90 percent. Both units will install systems to reduce NOx
emissions by at least 40 percent and in addition, the utilities will later
install whatever NOx controls that North Dakota determines to be the best
available control technology for those units. The NOx controls will be
installed beginning in 2007 with final NOx controls operational by the end of
2011.
Minnkota and Square Butte will fund $5 million in renewable energy development
projects, including wind power projects in their service area of North Dakota
and Minnesota. The wind power generated will displace approximately five
megawatts of coal-fired power and thereby further reduce emissions from these
coal-fired plants.
This is the tenth settlement that the federal government has entered into to
address Clean Air Act NSR violations by coal-fired power plants nationwide. The
combined effect of the settlements achieved to date will be to reduce emissions
of harmful pollutants by more than 973,000 tons each year, through the
installation and operation of about $5.6 billion worth of pollution controls.
The proposed consent decree will be lodged with the U.S. District Court for the
District of North Dakota, and will be subject to a 30–day public comment period.
Information on today's proposed consent decree:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/caa/minnkota.html
EPA's mission is to protect our nation's land, air and water. Citizens can help
by reporting potential environmental violations:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/complaints
R115