Power plant is fined for pollution

Dec 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - David Brooks The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.

PSNH has been fined $53,000 because one of its power plants emitted too much pollution back in 2008, but in something of an ironic twist, the plant in question is the portion of Schiller Station that now burns wood instead of coal, a change long touted as one of the utility's pro-environmental moves.

The administrative fine came because the unit emitted too much "particulate matter," a technical term for soot, in a test on Sept. 11, 2008, about three years after the wood-burning plant opened.

A follow-up test in November of that year found that the pollution was within the limits set by the state permit, of 7.2 pounds per hour emission of matter less than 10 microns in diameter, said Pam Monroe, compliance bureau administrator for the state Department of Environmental Services.

The 50-megawatt unit, one of three such units at Schiller Station in Portsmouth, switched in 2005 from being a coal-fired boiler to a wood-fired "fluidized bed boiler" that can also use coal. This change, called the Northern Wood Power Project, was a high-profile part of attempts to use more of the region's wood as a way to generate electricity, and remains one of the largest biomass power plants in New England.

PSNH operates a baghouse with fabric filters for control of particulate matter, a limestone injection system for control of sulfur dioxide and acid gases, and a selective non-catalytic reduction unit for control of nitrogen oxide emissions. Only the particulate test failed the permit.

In settling this case, DES said it "took into account PSNH's positive environmental compliance history, its cooperation in this matter, and the efforts it took to identify and correct the root cause of the problem in a timely manner."