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Ohio Edison Agrees to Spend $1.1B on Cleaner Air
WASHINGTON -- The Ohio Edison Co., a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., has agreed to spend $1.1 billion on reducing emissions at its coal-fired plants including the W.H. Sammis Station, Stratton, Ohio, and the Bruce Mansfield Plant in Beaver County, Pa.The company also agreed to pay an $8.5 million civil penalty, the second largest fine imposed on a power company, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. In announcing the consent decree today, the U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA called the agreement with the utility "a landmark Clean Air Act case" because they had alleged that Ohio Edison violated the New Source Review (NSR) provisions of the Clean Air Act at its Sammis plant.Co-plaintiffs with the EPA and Justice were the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. They joined in the settlement under which Ohio Edison agreed to reduce emissions of harmful sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the Sammis plant and other Ohio Edison and FirstEnergy coal-fired power plants by over 212,000 tons per year.The EPA projects it will cost Ohio Edison and FirstEnergy some $1.1 billion to install the pollution controls and other measures the consent decree specifies.The settlement resolves the suit the federal government filed in 1999 as part of its initiative, joined by the states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, to bring operators of coal-fired power plants into compliance with the Clean Air Act.The Sammis Station is one of the largest sources of air pollution in the nation, emitting 164,398 tons of sulfur dioxide and 40,431 tons of nitrogen oxides in 2003, the EPA says. That makes Sammis the second largest source of sulfur dioxide in the United States and the fifth largest source of nitrogen oxides.After a four-week trial in 2003, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio agreed with the government that there were violations at the Sammis plant. The court had not yet held the second trial needed to determine what pollution controls, penalties and other remedies were needed to resolve these violations. The settlement resolves the remedy phase of the litigation, thereby averting a trial.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. Emissions from power plants are carried significant distances downwind, causing air quality problems in other states where the polluted air is carried.The consent decree will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions atSammis by 134,500 tons a year and nitrogen oxides by 28,567 tons. Ohio Edison will install pollution controls at all seven of the Sammis steam-generating units, and a plantwide cap will be imposed on and emissions.The two largest units, which account for over half the plant's pollutant emissions, will receive state-of-the-art pollution controls, flue-gas desulfurization devices, better known as scrubbers. Scrubbers reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by at least 95%, the EPA says; selective catalytic reduction devices reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by at least 90%.Pollution controls will be installed between now and 2010. The final plantwide caps and emission reduction levels will be achieved in 2012.Ohio Edison and FirstEnergy agreed to further reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by more than 49,000 tons per year at three other plants: the Burger plant in Belmont County; the Bruce Mansfield plant in Beaver County, Pa.; and the Eastlake plant in Eastlake, Ohio.The utility will achieve these additional reductions by upgrading existing pollution controls or installing new pollution controls at these plants. These additional reductions will bring the total sulfur dioxide and related emissions to more than 212,000 tons a year by 2012, the EPA projects."This is a great result for the health of all the people who live downwind from this power plant and for the environment of the Northeast," said Thomas L. Sansonetti, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's environment and natural resources division. "We are pleased that Ohio Edison has decided to come into compliance and take on the responsibility for reducing the pollution from their plants."Added Thomas V. Skinner, EPA acting administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance, "We will achieve major air pollution reductions and improvements in air quality through this consent decree. This result has tremendous significance for our ongoing effort to ensuring cleaner air for all."The consent decree with Ohio Edison/FirstEnergy is the ninth settlement the federal government has entered into to address Clean Air Act violations by coal- fired power plants.Their combined effects will be to reduce emissions of harmful pollutants by over 940,000 tons each year through the installation and operation of about $5.5 billion in pollution controls, the EPA says. In terms of both the amount of the pollution reductions and cost, this settlement is the second largest of the power plant NSR settlements to date. The $25 million sum for mitigation projects, to compensate for the harmful effects of Ohio Edison's violations, is the largest mitigation project commitment in any of the United States' NSR settlements with utilities to date, the EPA said.Ohio Edison will fund $14.4 million in renewable energy development projects, specifically wind power projects in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or western New York. The wind power generated will displace an equivalent amount of coal-fired power and thereby further reduce emissions from coal-fired plants. Ohio Edison may propose, alternatively, to fund new projects to generate electricity from landfill gas in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut.Ohio Edison also will provide $10 million to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that allow them to perform environmentally beneficial projects related to air pollution. The states will determine the projects once the consent decree is entered.Allegheny County, Pa., will receive $400,000 to install a solar power project at one of its municipal buildings. Ohio Edison also will provide $215,000 to the National Park Service for an environmentally beneficial project related to air pollution in Shenandoah National Park, a Clean Air Act "Class I area" that has suffered from emissions at Sammis and other power plants.The proposed consent decree will be lodged for 30 days with the U.S. District Court in Columbus where the public will have that time to comment. "