The generating station will also have to bring in an outside consultant to correct air-quality problems.
HOLYOKE – The Mt. Tom Station coal-burning power plant will install air-monitoring equipment, comply with more stringent air-quality standards and hire an outside consultant to correct persistent air pollution problems at the plant under a settlement announced Thursday by the state Attorney General’s Office.
The station’s owners, FirstLight Power Resources and GDF Suez North America, have also agreed to pay a $25,000 penalty to the Commonwealth and pay $70,000 for a program educating owners of old wood stoves and wood-fired boilers in the greater Holyoke area, according to a news release from the Attorney General’s Office.
The public education plan will also encourage people to upgrade to wood-burning equipment meeting modern U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards.
The arrangement settles allegations that Mt. Tom violated clean air standards in 2009 and 2010, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
It’s a case first brought by the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based monitoring group that has actively opposed coal-burning plants like Mt. Tom. The Foundation has alleged that Mt. Tom violated clean air standards thousands of times from 2005 to 2010, despite $55 million worth of pollution-control equipment that was installed from 2007 to 2009 at the plant.
“The issue is essentially over how much soot they are putting into the air,” said Shanna M. Cleveland, a staff attorney with the Foundation.
The station had been estimating the amount of soot it has been producing based on the color and thickness of the smoke from the smokestacks. Now, with the new monitoring equipment, Mt. Tom will have a more exact measure of the pollution it produces, Cleveland said.
“The Mt. Tom generating company makes environmental compliance and public safety a priority in its operations,” wrote spokesman Charles B. Burnham in a news release. “ We share the Massachusetts Attorney General’s and Department of Environmental Protection’s concern for the well-being of state citizens and were pleased to come to this agreement that was satisfactory to all parties involved.”
The plant paid more than $40,000 to settle federal clean air violation in February.
Holyoke Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said the additional monitoring and environmental safeguards will provide peace of mind to Holyoke residents.
She also looked forward to implementing the education program for homeowners with wood-burning stoves and furnaces.
