Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 13, 1991 TAG: 9103130169
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The utility's offer to the Virginia Department of Air Pollution Control and the U.S. Department of the Interior is an attempt to overcome opposition to a 786-megawatt, coal-fired plant it proposes to build with Old Dominion Electric Cooperative.
David Haskell of the National Park Service said the proposal is a ploy by the utility to get additional credit for meeting requirements of the new Clean Air Act while increasing air pollution in Virginia.
"I don't see any major breakthrough yet from Virginia Power," said Haskell, who oversees environmental programs at the Shenandoah National Park.
But John Ahladas, Virginia Power's senior vice president for corporate services, said the offer is a good-faith attempt to reduce regional levels of pollutants that are damaging the Shenandoah park and other protected wilderness areas.
"Our basic opinion is that the Clean Air Act was enacted for the specific purpose of helping [solve] regional problems," he said.
Virginia Power and Department of Interior officials plan to meet again next week to discuss the proposal.
The plant, already a year behind construction schedule, is awaiting a permit from the State Air Pollution Control Board, which plans a formal hearing on the project Friday.
Under the Clean Air Act, Virginia Power will be required to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, the main cause of acid rain and poor visibility in the park, at its Mount Storm power plant in West Virginia by Jan. 1, 1995.
The plant's three coal-fired units account for about half of the estimated 300,000 tons of sulfur dioxide emitted every year by Virginia Power. They also are among the dirtiest power units in the nation.
Virginia Power has to reduce Mount Storm's sulfur dioxide emissions by 45,000 tons a year in the first phase of the Clean Air Act, but the company also has the option of buying "pollution allowances" from other utilities.
In its latest offer, Virginia Power has offered to offset, pound per pound, sulfur dioxide emissions from its Halifax County plant by reductions at Mount Storm, which is closer to the national park.
The company also is offering to offset the new plant's emissions of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that contributes to acid rain and formation of ozone, or smog, which has become a problem at the park in summer.
The Clean Air Act's first phase will require Virginia Power to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from Mount Storm by about 20,000 tons a year.
Haskell questioned whether the reductions at Mount Storm would help the park during its periodic bouts with pollution in summer.
Such skepticism is frustrating to Ahladas, who said the company's proposal would reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from Mount Storm as early as 2 1/2 years before costly controls would have to be installed there under the Clean Air Act.
"It's going beyond the Clean Air Act," he said.
He also wonders why, after a 10-year battle resulted in a landmark Clean Air Act, environmental critics still are not satisfied with pollution controls on utility plants.
"The ink hasn't dried on it," he said. "It hasn't been implemented, and people already are clamoring for more."
by CNB