New Jersey Appeals Against Polluting Pennsylvania Power Plant

TRENTON, New Jersey, September 17, 2007 (ENS) - The state of New Jersey has filed an appeal in federal court seeking review of a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, that rejected the state's opposition to an operating permit for a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania.

Attorney General Anne Milgram said that the appeal was filed with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals today on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, DEP.

It asks the court to review a Final Order issued by the EPA on June 20 that denied a formal petition by New Jersey seeking rejection of a proposed operating permit for the Reliant Energy's Portland Generating Station, a coal-fired plant in Upper Bethel Township, Pennsylvania located directly across the Delaware River from Warren County, New Jersey.

The Portland coal-fired plant is located upwind of New Jersey's Highlands, 860,000 acres of undeveloped lands that supply drinking water for more than 65 percent of New Jersey's residents. Prevailing winds carry air pollution from the Portland plant directly into the state.

In a related development, Milgram announced that the state has also filed with the EPA a Petition for Reconsideration of the June 20 Final Order.

The petition asserts that increases in air emissions at the Portland Generating Station would violate the national air quality standards in the vicinity of the plant that are designed to protect public health.

"Our position is that New Jersey has raised significant concerns about the operating permit for a facility that emits air pollutants upwind and directly across the river from our citizens and natural resources, and those concerns have not been given due consideration, " said Milgram.

"As today's action demonstrates, we remain committed to working with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to pursue litigation, where necessary, that will protect the quality of air we breathe here in New Jersey," she said.

DEP's original petition against the Portland Generating Station, filed in July 2006, claims that the Portland plant had made modifications allowing it to increase its emissions of air pollutants without installing the pollution controls required under the Clean Air Act. As a result, the state is seeking a "compliance schedule" ensuring compliance with the Act that would eventually lead to elimination of all violations was needed in the permit.

Also, the petition claims that Portland's permit lacked operational limits called heat input limits, and would allow the Portland plant to exceed air quality standards set by the Clean Air Act.

Heat input is a measure of the amount of coal burned each hour and limits on heat input are necessary to avoid excessive hourly emissions for many air contaminants, for example particulate matter - which can include dust, dirt, soot and smoke - and nitrogen oxides, one of the main ingredients in the formation of ozone.

Following a period in which EPA failed to address the petition, the State filed a federal lawsuit in February of this year seeking to compel the EPA to respond.

In June of this year, the EPA issued its Final Order rejecting New Jersey's arguments as either without merit or not in accordance with the procedural requirements of the Clean Air Act.

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