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For
Immediate Release: |
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For
Further Information Contact: |
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March
18, 2005 |
Office
of The Attorney General
-
Peter C. Harvey,
Attorney General
Division
of Law
- Nancy Kaplen, Acting Director
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Peter
Aseltine
609-292-4791
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Click
here or on image to enlarge
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Attorney
General Harvey Announces Settlement
Securing Major Air Pollution
Reductions at Ohio Edison Power
Plant
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TRENTON –
New Jersey Attorney General
Peter C. Harvey joined today
with New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer and Connecticut
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
to announce a major air pollution
settlement involving a huge
Ohio Edison plant on the Ohio
River that is one of the nation’s
dirtiest coal-fired power
plants. The air pollution
reductions will reduce acid
rain, urban smog and respiratory
disease in the Northeast.
Under the
agreement announced with the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, the W.H. Sammis coal-fired
power plant, located near
Steubenville, Ohio will slash
its air pollution emissions.
Giant smokestacks at the plant,
including one measuring 1,000
feet, send massive amounts
of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxides on prevailing winds
northeastward from Ohio.
“New
Jerseyans should not be forced
to breathe unhealthy air because
power companies refuse to
cut into their profits to
install newer, more efficient
pollution controls,”
said Acting Governor Richard
J. Codey. “We will continue
to fight corporate lawbreakers
to protect our air quality.”
“This
settlement, driven by our
victory in the liability trial,
is a powerful affirmation
that corporate polluters cannot
defy the law and profit at
the expense of the environment
and the health of our residents,”
said Attorney General Peter
C. Harvey. “It also
reaffirms the role of state
attorneys general in enforcing
the Clean Air Act and achieving
substantial pollution reductions.
This settlement will remove
hundreds of thousands of tons
of noxious pollutants from
the air and will protect the
health of people in New Jersey
and throughout the Northeast,
particularly children with
asthma and senior citizens
with respiratory ailments.”
“New
Jersey’s residents can
breathe easier as a result
of today’s settlement,”
said Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) Commissioner
Bradley M. Campbell. “Victories
like this one are all the
more important given the significant
lack of federal leadership
in protecting states from
the effects of upwind power
plants.”
On August
7, 2003, New Jersey and co-plaintiffs
New York, Connecticut and
the EPA gained a sweeping
victory in their suit against
Ohio Edison when U.S. District
Court Judge Edmund Sargus,
Jr. ruled that the company
violated the New Source Review
provisions of the Clean Air
Act by failing to install
modern pollution controls
in connection with 11 upgrades
at the Sammisplant, which
were found to be major modifications
that significantly increased
emissions.
New Jersey Deputy Attorneys
General Kevin Auerbacher,
Section Chief for Environmental
Enforcement, and Jean Reilly
tried the case together with
attorneys from New York, Connecticut
and the U.S. Department of
Justice.
Before a second
trial was held to address
remedies for Ohio Edison’s
violations of the law, the
parties began settlement negotiations
and reached the comprehensive
settlement announced today
which will reduce air pollution
emissions from four coal-fired
power plants. View Ohio
Edison Consent Decree
(278k PDF) free
PDF plugin
Under
the terms of this settlement:
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Ohio
Edison will install pollution
controls at the Sammis plant
that will reduce air pollution
from that plant by 70-80
percent;
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Because
of space constraints at
the Sammis plant, Ohio Edison
will put full controls on
the two largest Sammis units
accounting for over half
of the plant’s capacity,
and equipment for significant
pollution control on the
remaining five units at
the plant. Ohio Edison will
then reduce pollution at
its Burger coal plant in
Ohio, its Mansfield coal
plant in Pennsylvania and
the First Energy coal plant
in East Lake, Ohio.
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As
a result, the total air
pollution reductions achieved
by the settlement at the
four plants will exceed
the total current air pollution
emissions at Sammis.
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Ohio Edison will pay $2.8
million to New Jersey to
fund environmental projects
in the State;
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Ohio
Edison will pay a penalty
of $8.5 million to the federal
government within 30 days;
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Ohio Edison will pay $400,000
to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,
which filed an amicus brief
in the case, for solar projects;
and $215,000 to the National
Park Service for environmental
monitoring projects; and,
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Ohio
Edison will fund the development
of up to 100 megawatts of
wind power in western Pennsylvania.
The Sammis
plant, located on the Ohio
River, has 7 units and 4 smoke
stacks, the tallest being
1,000 feet. By comparison,
the Chrysler Building in New
York City is 1,048 feet high.
In 2003, the Sammis plant
emitted 164,000 tons of sulfur
dioxide – more than
are emitted by all of the
power plants in New Jersey
and Connecticut combined.
Sammis emitted 40,430 tons
of nitrogen oxides in 2003.
The lawsuit
against Ohio Edison is one
in a series of Clean Air Act
enforcement measures launched
by the attorneys general of
northeastern states. Other
such cases include:
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A
$700 million settlement
that New Jersey and the
federal government reached
in January 2002 with PSEG
Fossil LLC which required
the company to install pollution
controls to eliminate the
vast majority of sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxide
emissions from its Mercer
and Hudson coal-fired power
plants in Hamilton and Jersey
City; and
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A
$1.2 billion settlement
reached in April 2003 by
New Jersey, New York, Connecticut,
and the federal government
with Virginia Electric Power
Co. which required the company
to retrofit its eight coal-fired
power plants with pollution
controls to achieve major
reductions in plant emissions
which impact New Jersey’s
air quality.
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>>
view Ohio
Edison Consent Decree (278k
PDF) free
PDF plugin |
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