Fiona Morgan, News Editor
Residents of Wilmore and the surrounding areas may notice a large smokestack in the distance on top of a hill. This power plant is called E.W. Brown Generating Station, and the company is scheduled to close two of its coal-powered units in February due to increased environmental regulations.
Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E KU) owns the E.W. Brown power plant and nine others in Kentucky. The two unit closures are the latest in the company’s recent closures of coal-powered stations. While the two companies are merged, KU owns the E.W. Brown plant.
On Nov. 14, 2017, the company sent out a press release: “In making its decision, KU analyzed a number of alternatives for meeting the anticipated stricter Environmental Protection Agency regulations, including the Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule and the increased use of LED lighting and other energy efficiency measures. Based on those factors, the company determined the least-cost solution for customers is to retire two older coal-fired units at the E.W. Brown Generating Station in February 2019.” The ones scheduled for retirement are units 1 and 2, but unit 3 will remain in operation with stricter regulations.
LG&E KU retired other coal-fired stations in recent years: Tyrone Generating Station in 2013; Cane Run generating units 4, 5 and 6 in 2015; and Green River units 3 and 4 in the same year.
“We are continually looking for opportunities to reduce costs for customers while maintaining a reliable supply of energy,” said Paul W. Thompson, LG&E KU president and chief operating officer, in the press release. “Retiring two of our oldest and most expensive coal-fired generating units, while also avoiding more costly environmental capital expenditures for compliance, benefits our customers.” The company has replaced old units with solar facilities and natural gas-fired turbines.
According to NASA, coal-powered energy is a major contributing factor to climate change due to high carbon dioxide emissions. The E.W. Brown station burns 1.5 million tons of coal annually and emits 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, with some of the company’s other stations emitting more than four times that amount. Studies also show that emissions from coal-powered plants contain fine particle pollution, which leads to numerous health risks for people in surrounding areas.
According to EPA.gov, fine particle pollution, or particulate matter, “contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Most particles form in the atmosphere as a result of complex reactions of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which are pollutants emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles.”
Complications from inhaling these particles include premature death in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks, aggravated asthma and increased respiratory symptoms. People more likely to be affected are those with heart or lung diseases, children and older adults.
Since the year 2000, the Clean Air Task Force has issued multiple studies quantifying the deaths and other health issues attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plant emissions. An interactive map on the group’s website shows the results for every coal-fired power plant in the U.S.
The 2018 study showed that nine deaths, five heart attacks, 56 asthma attacks, three asthma hospital admissions and two chronic bronchitis cases are attributed to the E.W. Brown Station per year. The population at risk spreads 12 miles from the site in each direction, which includes Wilmore and Nicholasville. But those numbers are small compared to the company’s largest coal-fired plant, Ghent Station, which causes 82 deaths, 49 heart attacks and 524 asthma attacks per year.
While LG&E KU continues its efforts to reduce pollution and introduce more clean energy, it seems the company still falls behind in comparison to other plants in the country.
In 2009, Sourcewatch.org published a list of the 100 most-polluting coal plants in the U.S. in terms of coal combustion waste stored in surface impoundments. E.W. Brown sits at No. 50 on the list. Two of the company’s other plants also made the list, with Trimble County at No. 49 and Ghent at No. 10. Surface impoundments, or coal ash ponds, refer to large areas that power plants use to dump coal ash into water to contain it in the ground.
A 2016 study by “Environmental Science and Technology” found that coal ash ponds leak toxins like mercury, boron, selenium and arsenic into groundwater, which can end up in nearby water supplies. E.W. Brown has two ash ponds and sits on a hill next to Herrington Lake, which is used for drinking water. After noticing water discoloration near the plant, the Kentucky Division of Water conducted a test showing nine out of 10 fish near the plant had selenium levels 98 times the amount legally allowed.
Fish biologist Dennis Lemly collected fish from Herrington Lake and found many of them had deformities due to high selenium and arsenic levels. “If you look at the background deformity rate, you might find one out of 200 fish that has a minor fin deformity,” Lemly told Public Radio International (PRI) in 2017. “In comparison, in Herrington Lake, over one out of 10 had deformities that were manifested in these major skeletal deformities.”
After the state conducted its own tests and found similar results, Kentucky’s Department for Environmental Protection fined KU $25,000 in civil penalties in April 2017 and required it to complete a corrective action plan. The announcement of E.W. Brown’s unit closures came six months after being fined.
However, the plan only required KU to reduce the pollution, not clean it up. Environmental groups Earthjustice, the Kentucky Waterways Alliance and Sierra Club then demanded KU also clean up the lake. The groups filed a lawsuit in July 2017 against KU claiming it violated the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Earthjustice brought its case before the U.S. District Court in December 2017. Federal Judge Danny Reeves ruled in favor of KU because groundwater pollution is not covered by the Clean Water Act, and KU was already in agreement with the state through its corrective action plan.
The case was reinstated on Sept. 24, 2018, but Reeves dismissed it again on Dec. 28, 2018, since the suit “was filed against KU three months after the company agreed to submit to a remedial action plan and two corrective action plans to remedy the impacts to groundwater and surface water at and around the E.W. Brown plant,” reported the Lexington Herald Leader.
The studies that these plans require have not yet been conducted. “Therefore, the citizens whom the Sierra Club and Kentucky Waterways Alliance represent can’t bring an illegal-discharge claim at this time,” according to Reeves’s written opinion and order.
Earthjustice attorney Thomas Cmar is considering an appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
E.W. Brown has already closed one of its ash ponds. The two unit closures will cause less ash to be dumped in the other pond, which will likely reduce the toxins released into groundwater.
While the country keeps pushing for more clean energy, those living near a coal-fired power plant should still be aware of the toxins they could be inhaling or drinking. Residents near E.W. Brown suffering from asthma or heart or lung disease may want to invest in air purifiers, and those visiting Herrington Lake should take caution if they notice water discoloration.
