Coal-Burning Utilities Face Pollution Inquiry

The country’s biggest coal-burning power plants are suspected of releasing far more smog-causing pollution than allowed by law, prompting an industrywide investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Federal officials said Thursday that utilities found to exceed the emissions levels allowed under the Clean Air Act could be forced to install pollution control equipment and possibly face civil penalties.

A Clinton administration official familiar with the investigation said authorities suspect a large number of coal-power utilities profited by polluting the air beyond legal health-based limits.

The officials discussed the investigation only under condition of not being further identified.

Industry spokesmen acknowledged that utility executives were holding discussions with the EPA.

“We have not been advised of any specific allegations,” said Pat Hemlepp, a spokesman for the American Electric Power Co., one of the largest operators of coal-burning power plants, largely in the Ohio Valley.

The EPA investigation is focusing on more than 100 coal-burning power plants--many of them in the Midwest and Ohio Valley--that were allowed to continue operating under the 1990 Clean Air Act without having the pollution-control devices required of newer plants.

This provision assumed, however, that the plants would not be modernized or retrofitted so as to expand production, officials said.

In examining six power plants and a variety of state and industry records, EPA investigators have found major capital improvements in the plants, made under the guise of routine maintenance, that allow increased electricity generation, officials said. This, in turn, has led to increases in production of smog-causing nitrogen oxide in violation of the Clean Air Act, they added.

The 50 largest coal-burning electric power plants produce nearly 4.5 million tons of smog-causing nitrogen oxide a year. Electricity generation accounts for 29% of nitrogen oxide emissions, the rest coming from transportation and, to a lesser extent, industrial sources.

Two environmental groups released a study this week that showed electricity generation from coal-burning plants had increased 16% from 1992 to 1997, resulting in an additional 755,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions annually.