Dive Brief:
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NRG Energy has entered into a consent decree with the state of Maryland under which it will pay $1 million for pollution from two coal-fired plants in the state, according to press reports.
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NRG, which did not admit to wrongdoing or liability under the agreement, will also will pay an additional $1 million to support environmental restoration projects and invest $10 million to upgrade the wastewater filtration systems at the two plants to reduce future pollution.
- Maryland’s attorney general had claimed that the 710-MW Chalk Point plant on the Patuxent River and the 546-MW Dickerson plant on the Potomac River released illegal amounts of nitrogen and other pollutants in the rivers, which feed into the Chesapeake Bay.
Dive Insight:
The Chalk Point and Dickerson plants are the largest coal-fired plants in Maryland. Their owner, NRG Energy in December 2013 submitted deactivation notices to the PJM Interconnection based on proposed Maryland environmental regulations. The proposed 2017 deactivation date was later changed to 2019 as regulations evolved and compliance dates were moved back.
NRG bid both plants into PJM’s 2019-2020 capacity auction, and NRG spokesman David Gaier says the company continues “to monitor market conditions and regulatory developments that might impact the economics of the facilities, and would work within the appropriate PJM process as necessary.”
Both plants are installed with flue gas desulfurization (FGD) scrubbers and sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were employed to treat the FGD effluent. SBR technology is used to treat municipal sewage, but is not usually used to treat power plant waste.
When the waste systems began operating the bacteria in the SBR died, rendering the system ineffective in treating the water flowing into the rivers.
NRG is pleased to have resolved the lawsuit without further litigation that would be costly and unproductive for both sides, NRG spokesperson David Gaier told Power magazine. “Moving forward, we’ll be focused on installing and operating the additional nitrogen control system, and on implementing the supplemental environmental projects that are both key parts of the settlement,” he said.