HELP STOP DIRTY COAL IN ALEXANDRIA

RECENT ACTIONS REGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL
REGULATION OF THE MIRANT PLANT

Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board Approves the Two-Stack Permit
for the Potomac River Generating Station aka MIRANT.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The State Air Pollution Control Board (SAPCB) unanimously approved the two-stack permit for the Potomac River Generating Station (PRGS) operations proposed by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) and agreed upon by Mirant and the City of Alexandria.

This permit incorporates many of the key terms of the settlement agreement between Mirant and the City and makes them state and federally enforceable. The Alexandria City Council previously approved this settlement agreement between the City and PRGS following a unanimous recommendation from the City’s Mirant Community Monitoring Group. The settlement document and additional information can be viewed at alexandriava.gov/mirant

This permit and the settlement agreement are the result of considerable effort undertaken by the community since the Alexandria City Council resolution in June 2004 that addressed concerns about health and environmental impacts on the community from PRGS operations. The agreement represents significant progress toward the goals established in June 2004 by providing for the following actions:

• Requires the investment of $34 million by Mirant on new pollution control technology for particulate emissions, including baghouses, enhanced pollution-control equipment, or a combination of modern technologies.
• Gives the City control over selection and implementation of these new technology controls
• Imposes a PM2.5 (fine particulates less than 2.5 micron in size) emission limit that complies with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
• Requires Mirant to drop its legal challenge to the sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions limit of 3,813 tons per year, thereby locking in this limit.
• Requires installation of carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM) continuous emissions monitors, on a defined schedule, allowing enforcement of applicable limits.
• Gives the City access to the plant during the design and installation of the new controls, and to critical monitoring data including PM hourly stack and ambient short-term SO2 emissions data.
• Requires immediate installation of additional fugitive dust controls.
• Requires installation and operation of an additional PM2.5 monitor.
• Mayor William D. Euille, as well as Vice Mayor Redella S. “Del” Pepper and Councilman Paul Smedberg, who are members of the City’s Mirant Community Monitoring Group, attended the Board meeting and expressed appreciation to the Board for its leadership throughout the permitting process.

For more information regarding this permit, please contact Bill Skrabak, Director of the Office of Environmental Quality at 703.519.3400, ext. 163.

COMPROMISE SAVES CITIZEN POLICY BOARDS
Sometimes, when the public speaks, politicians really do listen.

Lynchburg News & Advance Editorial
Feb. 29, 2008

Amazing, but true, and a perfect example is the demise of the ill-advised
attempt by an odd assortment of groups to gut the powers of the State Water
Control Board and the Air Pollution Control Board. The two citizen boards
are the final grantors of air and water permits in Virginia.

During the 2007 session of the General Assembly, a bill to make the boards
only advisory in powers stealthily made its way through the legislative
maze until a group of legislators, including Del. Ben Cline of Amherst,
managed to block it for a year.

Going into the 2008 Assembly session, Sen. Phillip Puckett, R-Tazewell, and
Del. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, introduced a so-called compromise bill
that pleased no one but the boards’ foes. It vested all permitting powers
with the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality while
keeping the boards in place solely in an advisory nature and allowing
industry representatives to sit on them. Supporting the bill were a variety
of industry groups who felt they’d been aggrieved by one or both of the
boards, local governments in Northern Virginia and Tidewater and,
surprisingly, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who’d billed himself as a friend of
the environment over the course of his political career.

Thanks to the efforts of various environmental groups, officials like Del.
Cline and water board chairman Shelton Miles and average people from across
Virginia who didn’t want their voices silenced, the original bill is off
the table, replaced with an amended one that better serves the interests of
Virginia’s citizens.

The amended legislation, which has passed both the House of Delegates and
state Senate, gives the boards the final say over the granting of permits,
in keeping with the spirit of enabling citizens to participate in the
conduct of governmental environmental matters.

The legislation very sensibly addresses criticisms of the boards, whether
valid or not, that they could drag out the decision-making process. The
boards will now be required to act on a permit request within 90 days of
the close of the public comment period, unless the applicant agrees to an
extension. And if the board renders a decision contrary to that of the DEQ
director, then it must provide a detailed, written explanation of their
decision.

The compromise also codifies the qualifications of both board members (who
are appointed by the governor) and the DEQ director (a political appointee
who serves at the pleasure of the governor). Citizens must show, by their
education and experiences, their familiarity with the issues their board
faces.

The bottom line, after more than a year of intense lobbying by local
governments and business interests, is that the citizens of Virginia,
through the water and air boards, remain the final arbiters in major
environmental affairs in the commonwealth.

And that’s the way it should be.

STATE BOARD RULES MIRANT PLANT MUST REGULATE HARMFUL POLLUTANT

The Examiner , Taryn Luntz
Washington D. C.,
Mar 21, 2008

WASHINGTON - Alexandria won a partial victory in its years-long battle with the Mirant power plant Thursday when a state panel ruled the plant must regulate a type of pollution that is particularly harmful to humans.

A permit drafted by the state Department of Environmental Quality would have allowed the Alexandria coal-fired plant to merge its five smokestacks into two without regulating the emissions of a type of fine particulate matter — called PM 2.5 — that has been linked to asthma and heart disease in humans.

Mirant has said that merging its smokestacks would help the environment because the emissions would move faster, shoot higher into the air and disperse better.

Alexandria officials have said that without PM 2.5 caps, the project would lead to higher production and more pollution.

The State Air Pollution Control Board, an independent body that must approve Department of Environmental Quality permits, decided not to issue the permit without including an emissions limit.

“It’s pretty clear that we can’t issue a permit without filling in the number for the 2.5 emissions,” board member Bruce Buckheit said. “The law does seem to require it.”

Virginia law requires that PM 2.5 levels in the state comply with limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

“We think this is a step in the right direction,” Alexandria Department of Transportation and Environmental Quality chief Bill Skrabak said about the board’s deferral of the permit. “We believe it was a win.”

The board now must determine how to measure what an acceptable emissions limit is for the plant — another bone of contention between Alexandria and Mirant.

Alexandria’s consultants have used high-tech modeling software to measure the plant’s emissions and found staggeringly high levels.

Mirant has placed emissions monitors at two locations around the plant and found levels that are within federal limits.

Mirant said Alexandria was not using the city’s modeling software — which is the same kind that has been used by Connecticut and New Jersey to set emissions limits in those states — properly.

Alexandria said Mirant’s emissions monitors were not placed in areas with the worst pollution levels.

Special Thanks to all who donated these
wonderful items for our silent auction fund raiser!