EPA Rules to Target Midwest Plants

Decades ago, coal-burning industrial plants filled the air with soot along this stretch of the Ohio River Valley. Now some of the industry is gone, and the air here is clean.

But just south of town, at a bend in the river, a smokestack nearly as tall as the Empire State Building is suspected of causing problems for people hundreds of miles away.

The Environmental Protection Agency, possibly by the end of the week, is expected to demand tougher pollution controls in 25 states east of the Mississippi. The goal is to reduce interstate pollution; the primary target will be the tall stacks of more than 40 coal-burning power plants from Illinois to West Virginia.

Two plants south of Moundsville and a third 25 miles upriver belong to the Ohio-based American Electric Power Co. Together, last year, they released 91,000 tons of a smog-causing chemical--more than the emissions from power plants in all of New England and New Jersey combined.

The stacks were designed specifically to keep from polluting the Ohio River Valley, and on that front they have succeeded.

Moundsville resident Gloria Stiles, a server at Bob’s Lunch, remembers when local industries created so much pollution she couldn’t keep her car clean. Now, with most of the industries gone, the air meets federal standards and she and other local residents don’t pay much attention to the power plant.

But others do, saying the wind-borne emissions cause them problems.

“Our air quality is greatly affected by Midwest polluters, something over which we have no control,” complains Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, echoing views of governors from Maine to Delaware.

After years of study and interstate squabbling, Vermont and seven other Northeast states demanded last month that the EPA take action to curb the pollution from 40 of the largest Midwest coal-burning power plants.

The agency had already indicated it would direct states to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from the plants by as much as 60% beyond what already is required.

Dick Wilson, the EPA’s acting director for air quality in Washington, said the goal is to cut total summertime nitrogen oxide releases from 2.3 million tons to 1 million tons by 2003.

While 25 states may have to make additional emission reductions, the biggest reductions will be required in the Midwest. The plants have so far escaped stringent emission controls because generally they are in areas of good local air quality.

But there is intense debate about the cost of the standards and how much of the blame for smog over Northeast cities should be shouldered by the power plants.

“The problem is you’ve got too many cars in the Northeast,” argues John McManus, environmental specialist for AEP, the Ohio-based utility. “Making reductions in the Midwest is not going to help the Northeast. Reductions have to come from the Northeast.”

McManus cites computer models of air currents that he says suggest significant levels of emissions travel no more than 150 miles.

But senior EPA officials and many state leaders from the Northeast argue that the emissions that do reach the East Coast keep cities from Washington to Boston and beyond from making their air healthy.

Industries in the Northeast already have spent billions of dollars to reduce pollution from cars, factories and power plants. The Northeast states have agreed to cut nitrogen oxide levels by as much as 75% from power plants by 1999, compared to 1990 levels, and New Jersey recently increased that commitment to 95%.

Last year nitrogen oxide emissions from New York power plants totaled 73,600 tons, and from New Jersey, 27,500 tons. By comparison, Ohio’s power plants--mainly coal--accounted for almost 560,700 tons, according to EPA figures.

The power industry argues that it has already cut pollution by up to 40% to reduce acid rain and that another round of emission controls would have little overall impact on air quality and would lead to higher electricity costs.

McManus said the stricter regulations would cost AEP alone as much as $1.6 billion.

The EPA contends the entire industry could meet the new standards for $1.5 billion, a price far less than it would cost to cut the same amount of pollution from other sources, such as automobiles.