The only utility-sized coal-fired power plant in Western Massachusetts is Mount Tom Station in Holyoke, whose smokestack is prominent as one travels along Interstate 91
View full sizeRecent file photo showing the Mount Tom Power Plant in Holyoke.In response to a court deadline, federal regulators have proposed more stringent limits on air emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxins from power plants.
With the new rules, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hopes to reduce by 90 percent the levels of atmospheric mercury from coal and oil-fired power plants, a pollutant linked to neurological damage, including lower IQs in children exposed in the womb.
Coal-fired power plants are responsible for 99 percent of mercury emissions to the air in the nation’s power sector and nearly half of all such air emissions in the country. The agency said 44 percent of coal plants currently lack the pollution control technology to remove mercury from air emissions, and the rules are designed to bring them into compliance within four years after passage of final rules.
The only utility-sized coal-fired power plant in Western Massachusetts is Mount Tom Station in Holyoke, whose smokestack is prominent as one travels along Interstate 91.
Charles B. Burnham, a spokesman for Mount Tom Station, which is owned by GDF Suez Energy North America, said the plant is not among those that will be affected by the new rules.
“Because of the emissions control systems currently in use at Mount Tom, the plant is already operating below the limits proposed in the EPA regulations,” he said.
In 2009, the plant underwent a $55 million upgrade to its pollution control equipment.
Built in 1960, the 146-megawatt plant produces enough electricity for about 120,000 homes. However, it has had a history of heavy air pollution even though it operates within federal and state air emission guidelines. In 2007, the plant was the second largest polluter in Massachusetts.
A series of public hearings will be held around the nation before the final federal rules are written later this year. The proposed rules require power plants to install pollution control equipment to cut harmful emissions of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases. The rules are expected to prevent as many as 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year.
Charles D. Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association, said his agency “applauds the release of this sensible public health measure.”
“When it becomes final, the cleanup rule that the EPA is putting forward today will save lives (and) protect the health of millions of Americans,” he said.