The U.S Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to Wisconsin’s Department of Administration requesting information on 15 power plants in the state, including eight from University of Wisconsin schools, to see if they are complying with federal air pollution laws.
The EPA sent the letter last week Tuesday and requested the DOA send emissions records and coal usage from 1980 to the present for the identified plants. It also requested information on any repairs, modifications and operational changes on the coal burners since the plants opened.
“The EPA is sending this information request to the DOA to determine whether the emission sources at these facilities are complying with the Clean Air Act,” the EPA said in the letter.
The EPA requested information on the power plants at the universities of Eau Claire, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Stout and Whitewater. They also requested information on three Madison area power plants including the Capitol Heat and Power, Mendota Mental Health Institute and Hill Farms power plant.
DOA spokesperson Emily Winecke confirmed the agency had received the letter from the EPA.
Winecke said the DOA was already aware of the problems with the power plants and has been working on them. She added they will continue to provide the EPA with the information they requested.
The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970 and gives the EPA the power to set national air quality standards to protect public health and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollution, according to the EPA’s website.
Absent from the list of power plants is the University of Wisconsin’s Charter Street Heating plant. The state is spending more than $250 million dollars to convert the plant from burning coal to burning bio-fuel wood chips and pellets of wood.
Construction on the new bio-fuel boiler is under way, however Gov.-elect Scott Walker has said he wants the current plan scrapped.
In a letter to the DOA, Walker asked that they stop the construction on the bio-fuels boiler and shift to a natural gas boiler. Walker said natural gas could save taxpayers $100 million dollars and also meet environmental standards.
The DOA has 45 days to send the EPA the information they requested.
– The Associated Press contributed to this report.
