Clean Water for NC~~NC Waste Awareness and Reduction Network

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                         CONTACTS:

October 30, 2007                                              Hope Taylor, Exec. Director, Clean Water for NC, 919-401-9600
                                                                          Jim Warren, Exec. Director, NC WARN, 919-416-5077
 

TOXIC EMISSIONS PROJECTED TO INCREASE DRAMATICALLY FROM CLIFFSIDE EXPANSION

In a new analysis released today, energy and toxics protection groups Clean Water for North Carolina and NC Waste Awareness and Reduction Network point to a projected substantial increase in emissions of dozens of toxic and hazardous chemicals if the proposed huge Unit 6 of the Cliffside coal-fired plant is allowed to operate under draft air quality permit now in a public comment period slated to end Oct. 31.

“Duke Energy is selectively ignoring the toxic impacts of the proposed Unit 6 in saying they will shut down four “dirty” plants and build a “clean” one,” says Hope Taylor of Clean Water for NC. “We found that Duke’s own numbers project a 10-fold increase in mercury emissions from Unit 6 over 2005 mercury emissions from Units 1 through 4, as well as 13 to 50-fold increases in releases of other toxic metals like arsenic and cadmium.”

Unlike the “criteria pollutants” NOx and SOx that Duke is claiming will be reduced by the new plant and required pollution controls on Unit 5, many toxic pollutants do not spread over hundreds of miles, but are deposited closer downwind from coal fired plants. Metals don’t break down in the environment, but instead accumulate and become a source of increasing exposure over time. Toxic and hazardous pollutants projected for the Cliffside expansion also include a number of known or suspected carcinogens, such as benzene and formaldehyde. An increasing number of medical scientists agree that there are no safe levels of exposure to such chemicals.

The calculated changes in emissions are based on 2005 data submitted by Duke Energy to the NC Division of Air Quality for Units 1-4 which would be shut down, as well as emissions projections submitted with the corporation’s application for a “Title 5” air permit for the new Unit 6. The groups’ researchers report that all but three of the 57 toxic and hazardous pollutants studied would be allowed to increase substantially in the new permit, some of them by factors of several hundred. Nine chemicals in the Unit 6 projections weren’t even reported for Units 1-4.

Jim Warren of NCWARN is familiar with the kinds of arguments that Duke has been making in calling Unit 6 “cleaner” than units 1-4. “Duke is completely skewing the picture by only talking narrowly about those criteria pollutants, and then comparing Unit 6 emissions to the high levels of pollution before the controls REQUIRED for Unit 5 by the Clean Smokestacks Act. The public needs to know that there’s a huge public health price in potential toxic exposures for allowing Unit 6 to be built and operate under the permit as currently written. Duke may have made those projections based on a “worst case” of using only dirty western coal, but there is absolutely nothing in the permit to prevent them from doing so if Appalachian coal gets more expensive.”

“The whole purpose of the Clean Smokestacks legislation is undermined if utilities can double-dip in taking credit in this new permit for pollution reductions that were already required by the previous law. And we believe the toxics picture just adds to the level of deception going on here.”

Richard McElrath, Sr., a long-time Charlotte educator and grassroots environmental justice activist, founded the West Side Environmental Coalition to fight land uses and facilities that negatively impact land, air water and public health in his part of the city. The higher emissions from Cliffside would come primary east into the very Catawba basin lakes where he fishes avidly.

“It concerns me greatly that Duke could be allowed to release a lot more mercury that would end up in the fish we catch,” says McElrath. “Most African Americans, and folks of low and moderate income, fish the lakes at least as much to provide food as for sport. That makes the Cliffside expansion a clear environmental justice issue.”

“Saying that Unit 6 will produce more power than Units 1 through 4 is no excuse for massive increases in persistent toxic pollutants. The most tragic is mercury, which bio-accumulates in sediments and then in fish. When mothers or young children eat the fish, modified forms of mercury can cause severe neurological damage, even to fetuses,” says Taylor of Clean Water for NC. “All rivers and streams southeast of I-85 have mercury fish consumptions advisories, including parts of the Catawba River basin, east of the Cliffside plant. We need to just say no to any new coal plants, and to this gargantuan source of toxics. Especially when we know that publicly managed efficiency and conservation programs and renewable sources offer the cleanest and most cost-effective way to cut the need for big toxic and water-hogging power plants.”

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Visit www.cwfnc.org and click on “spreadsheet analysis” to see comparison of 2005 Emissions for Units 1-4 vs Projected Emissions for Unit 6, with chronic health effects and calculated factors of increase for each toxic or hazardous pollutant.

Dispelling Dukes' Deceptions (power point)