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From SourceWatch

Wood River Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Dynegy near Alton, Illinois.

Contents 1 Plant Data 2 Emissions Data 3 Coal Waste Site 3.1 Wood River ranked 90th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste 3.2 "High Hazard" Surface Impoundment 4 Illinois Power Company and Dynegy Midwest Generation 5 Articles and Resources 5.1 Sources 5.2 Related SourceWatch Articles 5.3 External Articles

Plant Data

• Owner: Dynegy Midwest Generation
• Parent Company: Dynegy
• Plant Nameplate Capacity: 500 MW (Megawatts)
• Units and In-Service Dates: 113 MW (1954), 388 MW (1964)
• Location: 3200 East Broadway, Alton, IL 62002
• GPS Coordinates: 38.866152, -90.135298
• Coal Consumption:
• Coal Source:
• Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

• 2006 CO₂ Emissions: 3,414,698 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions: 7,628 tons
• 2006 SO₂ Emissions per MWh:
• 2006 NO_x Emissions: 2,529 tons
• 2005 Mercury Emissions: 125 lb.

Coal Waste Site

• Wood River Station East Ash Pond
• Wood River Station West Ash Pond Cells 2E and 3

Wood River ranked 90th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste

In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill.^[1] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.^[2]

Wood River Station ranked number 90 on the list, with 267,066 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.^[1]

"High Hazard" Surface Impoundment

Wood River Station East Ash Pond is on the EPA's official June 2009 list of Coal Combustion Residue (CCR) Surface Impoundments with High Hazard Potential Ratings. The rating applies to sites at which a dam failure would most likely cause loss of human life, but does not assess of the likelihood of such an event.^[3]

Illinois Power Company and Dynegy Midwest Generation

On March 7, 2005 the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. EPA along with the State of Illinois announced a settlement between Illinois Power Company and its sucesscor, Dynegy, addressing alleged violations of New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act at company's Baldwin Energy Station. The EPA noted that sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions at the plant will decrease by 54,000 tons each year through the installation of approximately $500 million worth of new pollution control equipment. In addition to the Baldwin Generating Station, the Havana Power Station, Hennepin Power Station and Vermilion Power Station, Wood River Station were involved in the settlement.

The EPA stated that this "settlement requires installation of four new flue gas desulfurization devices (scrubbers) to control SO2; four new baghouses to control particulate matter (soot); and operation of existing control equipment, including three selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, year-round to control NOx. The entire five-plant system will be subject to annual emission caps to assure that significant system-wide reductions for both SO2 and NOx are achieved."^[4]

Articles and Resources

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
2. ↑ TRI Explorer, EPA, accessed January 2009.
3. ↑ Coal waste
4. ↑ "U.S. Announces Settlement of Illinois Power Case - Company will spend $500 million to reduce air pollution by over 54,000 tons per year," U.S. EPA, March 7, 2005

• Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
• Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
• Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.
• Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed Feb. 2009.

Related SourceWatch Articles

• EPA Coal Plant Settlements
• Existing U.S. Coal Plants
• Illinois and coal
• Dynegy
• United States and coal
• Global warming

External Articles

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