Jul 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Kathleen Quilligan The Times, Munster, Ind.



July 20--A new federal environmental rule will make the air around coal-fueled power plants safer to breathe by reducing harmful emissions from the plants, according to the agency that proposed it.

Northwest Indiana and Cook County plants are on track to be in compliance with the new rule, according to the companies that own them.

Northwest Indiana has four coal-powered power plants affected by the Transport Rule introduced July 6 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Transport Rule requires 31 states and the District of Columbia to improve air quality by reducing emissions, specifically of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, that cross state lines. Both Indiana and Illinois must comply with the rule, which is scheduled to begin in 2012 with another benchmark set for 2014.

 NIPSCO owns three of Northwest Indiana's working coal-powered plants and considers itself "ahead of the game" concerning clean technology. A fourth plant, State Line Power Station, is owned by Virginia-based Dominion, for whom a spokesman said the plant is compliant with current state and federal regulations.

Brian Urbaszewski, director of Environmental Health Programs at the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, applauded the new rule, which recommends the power plants operate already installed control equipment more frequently, use low-sulfur coal or install equipment such as nitrogen oxide burners, selective catalytic reduction or scrubbers.

Scrubbers, which Urbaszewski calls the "anti-acid system for the plant," help reduce sulfur dioxide.

"These devices have been around since the (1980s). It's not rocket science. So to have power plants operating without them today is unconscionable," he said.

Nick Meyer, NIPSCO spokesman, said the company has invested $375 million in clean technology, including so many scrubbers it exceeds the national average. It recently completed the installation phase of four selective catalytic reduction devices, which reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, and it uses low-sulfur coal in the plants.

NIPSCO owns R.M. Schahfer in Jasper County, Bailly in Porter County and Michigan City in LaPorte County. A fourth generating station owned by NIPSCO, Dean H. Mitchell in Lake County, is being decommissioned and won't be used in the future.

Meyer said many of the investments have taken place, but there still are additional phases and steps, and a portion of clean technology is related directly to current rate cases.

"Don't expect the investments to slow down anytime soon," Meyer said.

Dan Genest, a spokesman for Dominion, said State Line Power Station burns low-sulfur coal and has other controls to help with nitrogen oxide emissions.

Midwest Generation owns multiple coal-powered power plants in Illinois, including two in Cook County. Bill Constantelos, managing director of environmental services at Midwest Generation, said the two plants would have no trouble complying with the rule because of a binding agreement with the state of Illinois regarding mercury, which also addresses sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. Because of that agreement, he said the two plants will be in compliance even before the 2014 deadline.

"We'll be fine by 2014," Constantelos said of the sulfur dioxide emissions. "We'll continue to reduce our emissions ... and in 2018 we'll continue to reduce even more."

According to the EPA's website, both Chicago and Northwest Indiana are listed as nonattainment areas that don't meet environmental standards for particulate matter, which both sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide can turn into from their gas form once they leave the power plant. However, they have applied for attainment status. Urbaszewski said particles have been implicated in circulatory problems that can affect blood, linked to heart attacks, strokes and significant numbers of premature deaths.

Although the EPA has estimated implementing the rule will cost $2.8 billion annually, it also estimates a health and welfare benefits savings of $120 billion to $290 billion annually, reducing the number of premature deaths, cases of acute bronchitis, nonfatal heart attacks and emergency room visits by 2014.

While the rule is expected to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 71 percent over 2005 levels and nitrogen oxide emissions by 52 percent by 2014, Urbaszewski expects even tighter standards in the near future. The EPA is expected to tighten ozone standards next year; nitrogen oxide is one of the ingredients for creating ozone.

"This isn't the final say in what's going to go on," he said.

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