Pamlico-Tar River Foundation

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NC Riverkeepers fire shot across the bow of the DAQ over Duke’s Cliffside Permit

March 6, 2008 Washington, NC – Today, nine NC WATERKEEPER organizations, the Southern Environmental Law Center and other conservation organizations took aim at Duke Energy’s proposed new Cliffside power plant and fired a shot across the bow of the NC Division of Air Quality.  They petitioned the state to reopen and modify or revoke the air emissions permit because it fails to meet applicable state and federal laws requiring the state to protect public health and the waterways of NC from mercury.

Specifically, the final permit for Cliffside does not require maximum achievable control technology (MACT) for mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin that causes irreversible brain damage when pregnant mothers eat mercury-contaminated fish. According to Dr. LuAnn Williams, toxicologist for NC Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, an estimated 11,811 children are born each year in North Carolina with blood methylmercury levels above the EPA recommended level to protect the developing fetus. Dr. Williams goes on to note that this figure is likely underestimated. Mercury risks also include delayed developmental milestones, reduced neurological test scores, and cardiovascular disease. Pamlico-Tar RIVERKEEPER Heather Jacobs said, “The waters and fish of the Tar-Pamlico River are already impacted by mercury pollution. It is extremely irresponsible for the state to issue a final permit for a coal fired power plant that fails to protect North Carolinians from the dangers of mercury toxicity.”

Mercury has impaired more acres of water in North Carolina lakes than any other source including Chlorophyll a, turbidity, high pH, dioxin, nutrients, low pH and aquatic weeds. Partial testing of less than 60% of North Carolina waters by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources determined that 1,000 miles of North Carolina rivers plus an additional 29,522 acres of freshwater lakes, reservoirs and impoundments are impaired for mercury. Due to this mercury contamination, there are now 22 species of fish in North Carolina waters that are unsafe for consumption by woman of childbearing age and children under 15. 

The Waterkeepers warned the DAQ that as a result of Federal Appeals Court ruling on January 29, 2008, coal-fired power plants remain subject to the MACT standards of the Clean Air Act (§ 112). Therefore, any coal-fired units permitted after December 2000 must comply with the case-by-case MACT requirements.  Stated simply, MACT standards apply to the Cliffside plant and since both Duke and the Division of Air Quality failed to conduct a MACT analysis for Cliffside, the final permit is unlawful.

The Federal Court ruling is emphatic and clear: the so-called Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) promulgated under the George Bush administration is a dead letter.  And CAMR’s demise eliminates the regulatory basis for the Cliffside Final Permit, thus rendering the permit improper and illegal. Substantively, the state and federal § 112(g) MACT requirements require new coal-fired power plants like Cliffside Unit 6 to identify and implement the maximum level of pollution control technologically achievable for mercury. 

The Waterkeepers further warned Duke and the Division of Air Quality that under the law, construction at Cliffside must stop until the proper MACT analysis is complete. North Carolina’s regulations implementing § 112(g) provide, in pertinent part, that “a person shall not begin actual construction or reconstruction of a major source of hazardous air pollutants unless . . . [t]he Division has made a final and effective case-by-case determination under 15A NCAC 2D .1112 such that emissions from the constructed or reconstructed major source will be controlled to a level no less stringent than the maximum achievable control technology emission limitation for new sources.”

Scott Edwards, Legal Director for the WATERKEEPER Alliance and the attorney representing NC Waterkeepers said, “The real injustice here is that Duke could easily adopt readily available and affordable technologies to significantly reduce their mercury emission by 90% or more.  No one should support Duke’s willingness to poison North Carolina’s waterways and citizens with mercury simply to save pennies on the dollar.”