Wise County Coal Plant (VA): Background
What’s wrong with this plant? Take a look.
Mercury is a highly toxic element that can cause severe nervous system damage, birth defects, and death. Coal-fired power plants are the #1 source of human-generated mercury in the U.S. Mercury emissions enter waterways and accumulate in fish tissue, ultimately exposing humans who consume fish to the neurotoxin.
The Clean Air Act calls for the “maximum achievable control technology” for hazardous pollutants, including mercury. The original air permit for the Wise County plant allowed emissions of 72 pounds of mercury a year – more than a similar plant built more than half a century ago.
SELC’s legal work in exposing the flaws in the permit helped sway the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board to clamp down on Dominion’s dirty coal plant; the permit it issued in June 2008 dramatically cut allowable emissions, reducing them to 4.45 pounds a year. Unfortunately, the permits issued by the board still violate current law and are being challenged in court by SELC.
Dirty Coal, Dirty Air
Dominion’s plan to use unprocessed, unwashed coal is a threat to human health. Compared to processed coal, unwashed coal substantially increases levels of air pollution and very small particles, called “fine particulate matter,” which can cause asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular issues, and premature death. Fine particulate matter from U.S. power plants is attributed to 30,000 premature deaths each year.
The plant will also emit sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which form acid rain, ground-level ozone and smog. Acid rain damages forests, crops and buildings, and contaminates lakes, streams, and rivers making them unsuitable for aquatic life. Ozone and smog can cause respiratory illnesses and aggravate existing heart and lung diseases. Particularly susceptible groups include children, the elderly, and those with heart or lung disease such as emphysema, bronchitis and asthma.
Leveling the Mountains
While traditional coal mining involves deep, underground shafts to access coal seams, mountaintop removal blows the tops off ridges to expose the coal, and buries miles of streams under rubble, obliterating the natural landscape.
Coal proponents say that the Wise County plant will use “gob” piles – waste coal left behind by the mining industry – but Dominion has made no commitment to clean up these waste piles. Instead, fuel for the plant will likely be newly mined coal, exacerbating the devastation wrought by mountaintop removal.
In Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky, mountaintop removal has leveled over 1 million acres, destroyed more than 470 mountains, and buried or damaged more than 1,200 miles of streams. Already, over a quarter of Wise County has been strip mined, almost all of that through mountaintop removal.
No Economic Blessing
While the coal plant will have 75 permanent employees, the hundreds more jobs Dominion promises will be temporary construction jobs that will disappear once the plant is built. In fact, the State Corporation Commission’s staff determined that the cost of the plant will raise electricity rates so much as to have a negative impact on the Virginia economy, with a loss of 1,474 jobs as ratepayers cut costs to be able to afford the higher energy prices.
Further, the increase of mountaintop removal coal mining will hurt tourism, which generated $32 million in Wise County in 2006, according to state tourism officials. The Crooked Trail, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, draws more than 60,000 visitors to Appalachia and Southwestern Virginia each year. Also, more than 35,000 acres of the publicly owned Jefferson National Forest lie within Wise County, providing a multitude of outdoor recreational opportunities, including hiking, biking, hunting, fishing, canoeing and camping Mountaintop removal will destroy more of the scenic mountain views that draw so many of these visitors.
