Environmental group to sue over coal-plant emissions

PITTSBURGH - FirstEnergy Corp. violated federal and state air pollution laws at a western Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant, according the environmental group PennFuture.

PennFuture yesterday notified Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Inc. that it intends to sue over alleged pollution at the Bruce Mansfield plant in Shippingport, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

The plant violated opacity standards, which relate to how much emissions obscure background objects, at least 250 times between November 2002 and March, PennFuture said.

The Clean Air Act contains a provision that lets citizens bring enforcement lawsuits after notifying the alleged violator and state and federal environmental agencies. Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit public interest group that works on enforcement issues, is cocounsel.

Ellen Raines, a FirstEnergy spokeswoman, said it had not seen the notice, but that it was working on opacity problems.

The plant was the first in North America built with scrubbers to clean emissions, she said, and its pollution controls remove 95 percent of sulfur dioxide, up to 95 percent of nitrogen oxide and 99 percent of particulate matter, or soot.

Eric Schaeffer, the Environmental Integrity Project's director and a former Environmental Protection Agency employee, said the EPA under the Bush administration has been told to "stand down" when it comes to enforcement.

In a statement, EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement, Granta Nakayama, said the agency "is committed to holding polluters accountable and has sustained a three-year record of pollution reduction, totaling nearly 3 billion pounds, with companies investing $20 billion in pollution control equipment."

The notice was filed on behalf of two residents who say the plant regularly spews pollution.

"It's a sad day when citizens have to sue to get the environmental and health protections guaranteed them by state and federal pollution laws," said Ralph Hysong, of the Action Committee to Improve the Environment of Beaver County.

Hysong said he suffers from a loss of taste and smell, horny growths on the skin, and constant sinus drainage.

"We limit the time our grandchildren are permitted to play outside. We no longer grow a garden or have fruit trees, especially after last year's major upset that spewed grimy ash for several miles," he said.

In January, the state Department of Environmental Protection fined FirstEnergy $25,000 for releasing an oily soot from Bruce Mansfield that covered more than 300 homes in July. The fine was the maximum under the state's Air Pollution Control Act.

Charles McPhedran, a PennFuture attorney, likened the fine to a parking ticket for a company of FirstEnergy's size and said it was not an incentive to change.

FirstEnergy has said the release occurred when it was cleaning pollution-control equipment. It paid the fine and has worked to clean up after the release, the company said.

Pollution-control steps taken by the company have not shown results, McPhedran said.

Susan Bird, who lives about a mile from the plant, said it may be to blame for two of her sons' neurological problems.

"As any parent, I want my children to be healthy and happy. I want them to live long lives," she said. "But I worry that healthy, happy and productive lives might be an impossible dream due to the pollution we are all forced to breathe."