A coal-fired power plant in the small town of Alma, Wis., has taken center stage in the never-ending tug of war between environmentalists and power companies. Dating back to 1947, the plant, owned by Dairyland Power Cooperative, has been the center of an environmental and political debate that spans generations. Moreover, the interwoven fates of the power company, residents and regulators can be viewed as a microcosm of environmental policy in the state of Wisconsin.
Decades ago, Alma residents couldn’t hang their laundry out to dry without white sheets turning black due to the coal particulates that blanketed the town. Although conditions are more pleasant today, Janice Schreiber, who has lived in Alma since 1956, complained to the Capital Times of black soot from the coal pile blowing onto her porch in 2008. Air pollution is not only an environmental nuisance that gets everything dirty with soot – it is a serious public health hazard.
A 1993 Harvard University study found a correlation in Portage, Wis. – not 150 miles from Alma – between particulate pollution and mortality rates. In 2010, Clean Air Task Force, a non-profit organization from Boston, claimed that emissions from Wisconsin power plants cause 268 deaths annually. Medical consequences are attributed primarily to heavy metals and carcinogens generated by the coal combustion process. These emissions are released by coal-fired power plants as particulates, which enter the lungs and can be absorbed into the bloodstream. They cause a wide range of illnesses, such as lung cancer and emphysema.
In the Capital Times, Schreiber noted that, “There are a lot of medical issues for a little town like Alma,” and thinks that “some people have gotten sick over it, and probably died sooner than they should have” due to air pollution from the Dairyland plant. Over the past several years, Dairyland has been investing in pollution control technology. But to residents who have long been put at risk by environmental pollution, it may seem to be too little, too late.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, nine Wisconsin power plants are high priority violators of the 1977 Clean Air Act, but it has only taken action against four of these plants to enforce air quality standards. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources maintains that old power plants, even when outfitted with the mandatory pollution control technology, release significant amounts of pollution into the atmosphere. At the same time, it has consistently cited limited resources and manpower as the reason for incomplete regulation of this environmental pollution. Bureau Director of Air Management Bill Baumann said, “We don’t have the wherewithal to go after every single violation we find.”
Environmentalist groups such as the Sierra Club have entered the fray and filed numerous lawsuits against Wisconsin power companies. The Sierra Club is involved in pending litigation with Dairyland, Alliant Energy, and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. for failing to install modern pollution control equipment at their power plants.
Wisconsin residents like Schreiber are on the losing end of an age-old conflict between power companies, regulators and environmentalists. Power companies have consistently failed to comply with the standards of the Clean Air Act until state and federal agencies or pending litigation forces them to update emissions control and monitoring equipment at power plants. Wisconsin has failed to adequately regulate coal-fired plants, which are an inherent public health hazard due to particulate emissions and air pollution. The DNR is underfunded and understaffed, and has been incapable of monitoring and enforcing regulations on environmental pollution generated by coal-fired plants.
Because of this, environmental organizations like the Sierra Club have been the only effective voice advocating for citizens’ rights to a healthy environment. While the organization’s efforts have had some success, they have been the result of costly and time-consuming litigation. Wisconsin residents should not be forced to rely on environmental lawsuits to reduce the levels of heavy-metal and carcinogen particulates in the air they breathe.
Power companies should be implementing the most up-to-date clean coal technology, and if they choose not to, state and federal regulatory agencies need to act accordingly and enforce the Clean Air Act. After all, that is their job. Until power companies decide to move beyond the 1950s-era coal-fired generator plants that power the state of Wisconsin, residents are right to demand that companies limit their hazardous emissions. Evidence shows that this is a matter of life and death.
Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in math and physics.
