EPA Standards Upheld

by Toby Fallsgraff
Staff Writer

In a world of increasing air pollution and stricter smog standards, the Ohio University Lausche Heating Plant is set to make vast improvements in pollution control.

A February Supreme Court decision upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's raised standards after a three-year court battle, putting pressure on coal-burning plants, including OU's heating plant, to upgrade pollution control technology.

The 35-year-old heating plant heats most university buildings and last year produced 37 million gallons of domestic hot water. It is the leading and, for all practical purposes, the only coal-burning plant in the Athens area, said Pete Clark, assistant director of Maintenance and Operations for Production and Distribution.

OU's $6.4 million upgrading project, funded primarily by a $4.5 million grant from the Ohio Coal Development Office of the Ohio Department of Development, includes the installation of both existing and cutting-edge technology to the heating plant. The construction should be completed by early winter when the project is set to enter its testing period, said Mick Harris, director of maintenance and operations.

OCDO grants are given annually to public or private coal-burning facilities in Ohio, but this grant, which the plant received in 1998, is the largest single grant in the office's history.

"This process will move us dramatically forward," said Terry Conry, director of Facilities Management.

The Southeast Ohio region, in general, commonly has been associated with poor air quality, primarily in the Ohio River Valley. But air pollution remains a problem for the entire state. Data from a study conducted by Clear the Air, a national environmental organization, put Ohio second in the nation for deaths linked to pollution-related respiratory problems, as reported in a Jan. 8 Post article.

"I think a lot of OU students don't realize how bad the air quality is in the area," said Leigh Anne DeWine, president of OU Campus Greens, an activist environmental group. "It should be a concern."

"Eighty-five out of 88 (Ohio counties) do not comply with the U.S. EPA's health standards for smog," said Kurt Waltzer, spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Council.

Under current EPA standards, the university heating plant must operate with a sulfur dioxide level below 4.7 lbs/mmBTU and an opacity level under 20 percent. The heating plant typically operates at a 3 to 3.5 lbs/mmBTU sulfur dioxide level and an 11 percent opacity level, Clark said.

Clark said the plant's emissions levels are well below average and far better than levels of other regional coal-burning plants.

Although the plant already is compliant to mandated EPA standards, Conry said the object of the upgrades is to maintain compliance with future requirements as well as to allow the plant to continue to burn southeastern Ohio coal, which he said saves money and is good for the region.

"We're committed to trying to burn Ohio coal cleanly," he said.

"This process exceeds what the EPA currently requires," Harris said. "We're trying to be good neighbors in the community and clean up our pollution."

The primary improvement consists of the installation of a new particle-gathering technique. Currently the plant controls its emissions levels with an electrostatic precipitator, which gathers particles in a magnet-like manner before they can enter the smokestack and be released into the air. The heating plant will switch to a bag house, which removes particles via a filter sock, in conjunction with a newly developed process called sorbent injection. Harris said the sorbent injection method has the potential to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions up to 80 percent.

"What we're doing is absolutely new technology," Clark said. "It's not something that has been utilized much this far."

One other demonstration of sorbent injection exists on a smaller scale in Ohio, but its effectiveness on a larger scale will be measured here, Harris said.

"It's proven technology (and) this is a practical application of it," he said. "There is potentially at least one facility in every county (in Ohio) that could use this sorbent technology."

DeWine said she is pleased that OU is taking steps to improve pollution control.

"I'm glad to see any (improvement) coming out of OU progressively," she said. "I just hope that they don't think this is the final step."