CWLP seeks renewed Dallman permit

 Don Hanrahan of Springfield remembers spending his childhood summers playing outside in Forest Park Hills subdivision, just across Spaulding Dam from the city power plant. He says that before City Water, Light and Power added pollution controls called “electrostatic precipitators” to the power plant in 1972, “there were days we could not play.”

“Our eyes would burn,” Hanrahan said. “You couldn’t breathe. The smoke would be coming right at you.”

Hanrahan says his neighborhood rejoiced when the pollution controls were installed decades ago, but he still has concerns about the power plant that supplies much of Springfield’s electricity.

City Water, Light and Power is seeking a renewed permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to operate the Dallman Generating Station on Lake Springfield. IEPA took public comments on the permit at a hearing on Aug. 30, prompting several people to call for stricter rules on the power plant.

Doug Brown, CWLP chief utility engineer, spoke briefly at the hearing, saying the permit – currently in draft form – “fairly and fully addresses compliance with applicable regulations.”

“The draft … permit,” Brown said, “is just one example of CWLP’s commitment to the environment.”

Brown said CWLP installed pollution controls when many investor-owned utilities didn’t and designed the newest Dallman 4 boiler with “some of the most advanced pollution controls in the country.”

Among other things, the draft permit would add requirements for monitoring emissions of mercury and heavy metals, require retrofitting of CWLP’s two oldest boilers with new pollution controls and address the removal of the defunct Lakeside boilers. Dallman 4, which went online in 2009, is currently operating under regulations set in its construction permit. The new permit would incorporate those regulations, setting limits for carbon monoxide, sulfuric acid mist and microscopic solid particles.

Several speakers at the hearing – including a handful of girls from Girl Scout Troop 6195 in Springfield – said CWLP’s current monitoring and reporting of pollution levels is inadequate and questioned whether the draft permit would add meaningful new requirements. Some speakers called for 24-hour monitoring and even public access to real-time emissions data, which would enable observers to easily track pollution levels online.

Mercury emissions in particular are a point of contention, with IEPA saying a “sorbent trap” is adequate to track the highly toxic element. Sorbent traps absorb pollutants at a known rate, allowing regulators to find out how much pollution was emitted by measuring the amount absorbed over a given time period.

Chris Romaine, manager of the construction unit within IEPA’s air permit section, said sorbent traps are adequate because mercury limits are measured annually by the state and every 30 to 90 days by the federal government – meaning measurements for a particular day, hour or minute aren’t necessary.

However, speakers representing the Sierra Club environmental group said sorbent traps only give an average of pollution over time, obscuring any spikes that may occur. Faith Bugel, an attorney representing the Sierra Club, said continuous monitoring is preferable because it’s more precise and offers a snapshot at any given time.

“My experience with power plants generally is that when you have that snapshot, you can more quickly identify if there is a repair, maintenance or operations issue that needs to be addressed,” Bugel said. “With (continuous monitoring) you get real-time information, and that gives the operator the ability to respond quickly if something is going wrong. For instance, a dramatic spike in emissions can signal that the pollution control equipment isn’t working properly.”

Speakers also said the language and length of the 256-page draft permit makes it hard for the public to understand.

Tamika Gibson of Springfield, a member of the Springfield environmental branch of the NAACP, told regulators that people of color and low-income communities are more likely to suffer from respiratory diseases and other social costs of coal plants. Gibson urged regulators not to grant CWLP permission to exceed pollution limits.

“Springfield residents deserve to breathe clean, healthy air all the time,” she said.

CLWP spokeswoman Amber Sabin said the hearing went well, noting that IEPA assured the public that mercury reporting is adequate and that continuous monitoring is occurring. She said the recent switch from fuel oil to natural gas startup for the Dallman boilers allows for further reduced emissions.

IEPA will accept written public comments on the permit through Sept. 29.

Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].