Westar to Spend $500 Million to Resolve Clean Air Violations
Westar Energy has agreed to spend approximately $500 million to significantly reduce air pollution from a Kansas power plant and pay a $3 million civil penalty under a Clean Air Act settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Justice Department. The company has also agreed to spend $6 million on environmental mitigation projects.
The agreement, filed in federal court in Kansas last week, resolves alleged violations of the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review requirements at Westar’s Jeffrey Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant near St. Marys, Kansas. The settlement applies to all three units of the 2,160-MW coal plant—or 73% of Westar’s fleet.
Under the settlement, Westar will install and operate pollution control equipment at the Jeffrey Energy Center that is expected to reduce combined emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by roughly 78,600 tons per year, which is 85% below 2007 emissions. In addition, Westar will surrender surplus sulfur dioxide allowances. These allowances cannot be used again, which means that the emissions will be permanently removed from the environment. Westar will also rebuild and optimize controls to reduce particulate matter emissions.
“Today’s settlement sets the most stringent limit for sulfur dioxide emissions ever imposed on a coal-fired power plant in a federal settlement,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA is committed to protecting clean air for communities by making sure coal-fired power plants comply with the law.”
The settlement also requires Westar to spend $6 million on projects to benefit the environment and mitigate the adverse effects of the alleged violations, including installing new wind turbines and installing plug-in hybrid infrastructure to facilitate the use of plug-in hybrid vehicles.
The government alleged in a February 2009 complaint that Westar modified all three units at the Jeffrey Energy Center, its largest coal-fired electric generating station, without installing required pollution control equipment or complying with applicable emission limits, in violation of the Clean Air Act. The government said it discovered the violations through an information request submitted to Westar.
The settlement is part of the EPA’s enforcement initiative to control harmful emissions from coal-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review requirements.
The state of Kansas joined the federal government in the settlement. The proposed settlement was lodged today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas and is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.
Sources: EPA, DOI, Westar