Emily Pomilio, (480) 286-0401, emily.pomilio@sierraclub.org
Patrick Grenter, (412) 889-8787, patrick.grenter@sierraclub.org
Pittsburgh, PA -- The Pennsylvania Department of the Environmental Protection (DEP) hosted a public hearing yesterday on its drafted update to the water pollution permit for the Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant. The plant owned by FirstEnergy, is a 2,700 megawatt plant located on the Ohio River in Beaver County. It is currently the largest coal plant in the state, and one of the largest remaining plants in the country.
Right now, the plant withdraws about 195 million gallons of water per day from the Ohio River and its Clean Water Act enforced National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, deciding what pollutants it can dump in the river, has been expired since December 2011. The pollutants discharged into the Ohio River by the coal plant can cause severe health and environmental problems in the form of cancer and other health risks in humans, lowered IQ among children, and deformities and reproductive harm in fish and wildlife.
The plant also contributed coal waste to the Little Blue Run ash impoundment, which contained billions of gallons of coal ash slurry and was forced to begin a multi-decade closure process by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection in 2012 after it was determined that the impoundment had contaminated nearby residential communities.
In response Patrick Grenter, Pennsylvania Senior Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club said the following:
“Bruce Mansfield has been polluting the community for too long. The DEP needs to finalize stringent protections for local water supplies that include the 2015 limits of arsenic, mercury and selenium. Beyond the millions of pounds of toxins it dumps into the river, the plant is barely operating anymore. Now we must ask, how much more pollution will FirstEnergy executives be allowed to dump before the plant shuts down? And will the executives be held accountable to the commitments they made to their community and its employees? The Wolf administration must take any and all action to protect those impacted through this retirement. FirstEnergy cannot be counted on to do the right thing.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.