Indian River power plant tops in toxins
Water pollution has decreased in the state from 2006 to 2007.
The annual Toxic Release Inventory for 2007 was released by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Friday, Jan. 9.
“This is very bad news,” said Citizens for Clean Power (CCP) founder William Zak. Pollution from the NRG Energy-owned power plant in Millsboro has not decreased.
The grassroots environmentalist group is active in calling for the plant to be cleaned up, citing health and environmental dangers posed by coal combustion.
The state report says releases of known and suspected carcinogens fell by 39 percent in 2007, because some carcinogens in fly ash from the Indian River power plant are being sent out of state.
That’s good news, but Zak said cancer rates in the immediate vicinity of the power plant are elevated over state numbers. State officials have said they found no link connecting the power plant with cancer rates. Cancer rates are affected by lifestyle choices, such as smoking, and by the areas in which people have lived throughout their lives, they say.
Toxic release inventories cover more than 580 substances, including both highly toxic and persistent compounds such as mercury and less toxic ones.
DNREC monitors 69 facilities for toxic releases. Of those, 15 generate 98.9 percent of the releases cataloged in the annual report. NRG Energy’s Millsboro facility tops that list, although its releases fell 2 percent from 2006 to 2007. The plant burns coal and produces 784 megawatts of power at maximum output.
NRG Energy lists 18 chemicals the plant releases, including 10 metallic compounds, three acid gasses and ammonia. Those pollutants are a result of coal combustion and can vary with the quality and source of the coal burned.
The exception is ammonia, which is used to control emissions. The company optimized its pollution control system, which reduced ammonia emissions. The facility’s largest unit was not used during ozone season and that also decreased ammonia emissions.
Acid gases – hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and hydrofluoric acid - made up 88 percent of the facility’s onsite releases in 2007, according to the state report.
The facility’s mercury releases fell by 34 pounds, or 17 percent from 2006 to 2007. The plant recently installed new, mercury-control technology to capture mercury before it leaves the stacks. Zak said, “We are very grateful it exists, because people are not breathing mercury. But, the technology puts mercury in with the fly ash. So, they’ve moved the problem to the other end.”
The citizens’ group opposes the plant’s storage of fly ash in an uncovered landfill. State environmental officials say it is contained with water and chemical binders, but environmentalists say it is subject to wind erosion.
Some 70 percent of chemical releases to the air came from coal-fired power sources and were mostly hydrochloric acids. On-site releases of pollution to the air increased by 580,000 pounds. At Indian River, hydrochloric acid releases increased by 300,000 pounds, or 12 percent. That is because more power has been produced there, DNREC says.
Sussex County accounts for nearly 47 percent of statewide pollutant releases to the air, compared to almost 52 percent in New Castle County.
The 2007 on-site releases to water were 4.4 percent lower than the year before. The Inland Bays receive 0.1 percent of water pollution from the industries that report toxic releases statewide. DNREC’s report says on-site releases decreased as a result of better reporting measures at the Premcor refinery in Delaware City and reduced concentration of nitrate compounds in wastewater at the Perdue poultry factory in Georgetown.
