Some of Virginia's aging power plants, including several surrounding Fredericksburg, are dirty and getting dirtier when it comes to certain airborne pollutants.
But according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, there's also a silver lining: Some power stations are making progress in reducing harmful byproducts.
The report uses Environmental Protection Agency data on tons of of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide released from 1995 to 2003.
"Virginia is kind of in the middle of the pack" when it comes to polluting, older power plants, Debra Gemme, a U.S. PIRG spokeswoman, said yesterday. "There are a lot of old, coal-fired plants in the Eastern U.S., and Virginia does have quite a few."
People living near the plants should be aware of the problem, she said, "because of the health issues associated with the pollution.Children are especially at risk and susceptible to getting asthma early on."
According to the American Lung Association, power plant pollution causes about 1,000 deaths annually in Virginia. It also leads to more than 140,000 lost work days and 23,700 asthma attacks.
The federal Clean Air Act has put a spotlight on power plant emissions.
Last April, the EPA added Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County to its air-quality nonattainment list. They joined Stafford County, which like Northern Virginia is subject to vehicle, business and industry emissions controls.
The Clean Smokestacks bill, supported by a coalition of environmental groups, is wending its way through the General Assembly. That measure would cut pollution from the state's 15 dirtiest power plants.
However, the Clear Skies bill, introduced in Congress Wednesday, would replace much of the Clean Air Act with the Bush administration's more industry-friendly policies, environmentalists say. The bill would ease controls on power plants and allow their owners to buy or trade rights to higher emission levels, so long as nationwide caps are maintained.
According to yesterday's report, nine power plants, including one in nearby Maryland, had more carbon dioxide emissions over the period.
Among those were the Mirant-owned Morgantown plant on the Potomac River in Charles County, Md., at the foot of the Potomac River Bridge; the company's Potomac River plant in Alexandria, and Dominion Virginia Power's Chesterfield plant outside Richmond.
The Morgantown plant released 7.7 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2003, an increase of 15 percent from 1995. The Alexandria plant's emissions were up 81 percent over the period to 1.5 million tons in 1003, and Chesterfield's was 7.9 million tons in 2003, up 14 percent.
Carbon dioxide from power plants is the leading contributor to global warming.
The three coal- or oil-burning plants also had significant increases in soot-forming sulfur dioxide emissions.
The Morgantown plant released 85,340 tons in 2003, up 20 percent from 1995; Alexandria plant, 15,166 tons, up 21 percent; and Chesterfield, 80,551 tons, up 23 percent during the period.
For those four plants, the picture was somewhat better for nitrogen oxides, an ingredient in smog and acid rain.
Morgantown cut those emissions by 20 percent to 17,793 tons over the eight-year period; Alexandria, 18,353 tons in 2003, down 69 percent; Chesterfield, 14,433 tons, down 38 percent.
According to the report, Dominion's Possum Point plant near Quantico in Prince William managed to reduce emissions of all three pollutants between 1995 and 2003.
The reductions there, and at the other plants came from switching from coal to cleaner-burning fuels and the installation of better pollution controls.
"We've got a positive story to tell" at Possum Point, the plant closest to Fredericksburg, said Dan Genest, spokesman for Dominion. It stopped burning coal in 2002 and converted to a combined-cycle unit, which operates on natural gas most of the time.
Genest said that big improvements have been made at Chesterfield, one of Virginia's perennial polluters.
New, catalytic reduction systems have been installed on three of the plant's four coal-fired units, which will greatly reduce nitrogen oxides, and two other units will get scrubbers to remove sulfur dioxide.
Gemme said that national caps on the pollutants don't go far enough and that all plants should be required to meet modern pollution standards.
Most of the newer generating plants in Virginia use cleaner-burning fuels such as natural gas. There are about 60 plants of all types across the state.
"The newer ones are doing a good job," Gemme said, "but the older, dirtier plants are continuing to pollute."
To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com