UW coal goal: Comply with Clean Air Act

From staff/news services  —  11/08/2007 10:58 am

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will work with the University of Wisconsin on ways to get the university to clean up a 48-year-old coal-fired Charter Street power plant that's been ruled noncompliant.

Lloyd Eagan, DNR South Central Region director, said today the goal is to bring the facility back into compliance with federal clean air laws.

"We need to sit down with the UW and work through the things they've looked at, to see what's practical for their situation," Eagan said. "There's a whole range of options to consider."

U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ruled Wednesday that the plant at Charter and Dayton streets on campus has been in violation of the federal Clean Air Act for five years.

The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in May, claiming that the university violated the Clean Air Act by failing to install modern pollution controls when it performed several upgrades to keep the power plant operating.

In his ruling, Shabaz ordered pollution controls installed on the plant, but gave no timetable for the university to follow to make such improvements.

The DNR issued a notice of violation to the UW in May, at the same time the Sierra Club filed its lawsuit. Under the DNR timetable, the UW has until Feb. 8, 2008, to show progress on plans to clean up the facility, or the matter could be turned over to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The university will move to improve the plant's environmental performance, increase efficiency in heating and cooling the campus and use more alternative fuels, said Alan Fish, UW-Madison associate vice chancellor. But those changes could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, he said.

"Our next step after the trial is to work with our partners at the UW System and the state to develop a plan to achieve those important goals," Fish said in a statement on the ruling.

No decision, however, had been made on whether to appeal the ruling, Fish said.

Eagan said that if UW demonstrates progress on making changes at the Charter Street plant, the DNR would be able to accept the ideas as progress, even if those changes weren't complete.

"UW can do things to demonstrate progress," she said. "If there's a compliance schedule to do those things, we can close the case down."

The Sierra Club filed the lawsuit as part of a strategy to pressure the university into closing the plant and switching to a cleaner-burning fuel such as natural gas or biomass.

"It sounds like they're finally recognizing they need to do their part to address global warming and no longer be a part of the problem," said Bruce Nilles, an attorney for the Sierra Club.

The university must focus on finding alternatives to burning coal in a residential neighborhood, Nilles said.

"I guarantee there will not be any coal burning at that power plant in the future," he said. "The people of Madison will not tolerate the university being a major source of global warming."

The lawsuit said the university failed to inform the DNR about upgrades made to the plant since 1996 or to obtain necessary permits.

The university argued that work done to the plant was merely routine maintenance and not modifications that required permits or that significantly increased air pollution. But the judge disagreed, singling out four instances since 2001 where improvements were made that resulted in significant increases in emissions and required permits.

The plant, located blocks from Camp Randall Stadium, creates steam used to heat and cool university buildings, federal agencies, the state Historical Society and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. It is one of three that helps power the campus. Four of its five boilers are fueled by coal.

Environmentalists say the plant is the second-largest source of pollution in Dane County, emitting thousands of tons of pollutants that contribute to global warming, respiratory illness and mercury-polluted lakes. MGE's Blount Street plant is the largest pollution source in the county.

In August, the Sierra Club also said the plant was violating the Clean Water Act by illegally draining coal-contaminated waste into Lake Monona. The ruling issued Wednesday does not address those claims.

From staff/news services  —  11/08/2007 10:58 am

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