Portland General Electric's Boardman coal plant violated pollution-control standard since 1998, EPA says

Oct 6 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Scott Learn The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accusing Portland General Electric of operating its Boardman coal-fired plant without adequate pollution controls since 1998.

The EPA's "notice of violation," issued last week, says improvements PGE made to Oregon's only coal plant in 1998 and 2004 boosted pollution and should have triggered expensive pollution controls for sulfur dioxide, a contributor to acid rain.

At the time, PGE told state regulators that the plant would still be within its permitted pollution levels and no further controls were needed. Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality did not challenge that assessment.

PGE spokesman Steve Corson said the company does not believe it is violating the Clean Air Act. The issue was first raised in a lawsuit against PGE by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups that the utility is contesting in court.

"We did not do any of this in secret," Corson said. "We consult with our regulators and keep them informed when we're performing major maintenance at Boardman."

EPA's notice threatens civil penalties of up to $37,500 for each day the plant was operating without proper pollution controls. But it also calls for PGE to enter into discussions to resolve the matter.

Aubrey Baldwin, attorney for the Sierra Club and the other environmental groups, said the EPA notice should force the utility to abandon its proposal to keep the plant operating until 2020 while deferring the most expensive pollution controls. Environmental groups want an earlier closure date.

The environmental groups' lawsuit brought the matter to the EPA's attention, Baldwin said, prompting the agency to request thousands of pages of documents from PGE.

At the time of the improvements, it appears neither DEQ nor PGE were aware of the "new source performance standards" that the EPA cited in its notice, Baldwin said.

"It didn't occur to them," she said. "It's very disappointing."

-- Scott Learn