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Peabody Coal Gets Permit to Pollute:

Dirty Coal Burning Plant Will Put More Toxic Mercury in Illinois’ Waters and Threaten Families

Illinois – Clean Air advocates learned today that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has issued an air pollution permit to Peabody Corporation for its proposed Prairie State electric generating facility. These groups had urged IEPA to deny Peabody’s permit for its dirty conventional coal plant proposal, asking IEPA to insist on a state-of-the-art power plant with the lowest possible levels of pollution.

“My whole family fishes and we want to eat what we catch, but we’ve been told to limit the amount of fish we eat because the fish are poisoned with mercury,” said Kay Tippy, a Jackson County, IL resident and mother of young children.

Coal burning power plants represent the largest source of methyl mercury contamination in both Illinois and Missouri. IEPA’s decision would allow Peabody to dump an additional 270 pounds of mercury into the air each year. Mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin, is particularly harmful to babies and young children. “Every lake and stream in Illinois contains mercury-contaminated fish and the Peabody Plant will only make it worse,” Tippy added.

The beautiful rolling farmland near the rural village of Marissa in Washington County, Illinois, is the site of the 600-acre proposed facility. “The Prairie State plant will dump over 50,000,000 pounds of soot, toxic mercury, and smog-causing pollution every year,” said Verena Owen, Clean Air Campaign chair of the Illinois Sierra Club. “Adding thousands of tons of new pollution is unacceptable, especially since there are alternatives that would better protect our health. Peabody should utilize state-of-the-art technology that meets our needs for reliable and affordable power without sacrificing our health and quality of life.”

Illinois’ existing coal plants are the state’s largest sources of air pollution. “Last month, USEPA declared that two thirds of all Illinois residents are living in areas that fail to meet minimal health standards for fine particulate soot,” said Brian Urbaszewski of the American Lung Association of Chicago.

“This air pollution is causing widespread human suffering at a tremendous cost to our communities,” Urbaszewski added, “The soot and smog pollution from Peabody’s proposed dirty coal plant will impact every Illinois community from Carbondale to Chicago and from Danville to Moline. Because Peabody refuses to use the best pollution controls, it will add thousands of tons of tiny soot particles into the air, particles that lodge deep in our lungs where they trigger asthma attacks, increasing emergency room visits for breathing problems, and even the number of premature deaths.”

“Technologies exist now to burn coal and produce only one-fifth of the pollution Peabody proposes,” said John Thompson, Clean Air Task Force’s Advocacy Coordinator. “We can do better than a dirty coal plant with outdated technology.”

A major impact from Peabody will be on the greater St. Louis and Metro East area, which already fails to meet federal standards for air quality. Kathy Andria of East St. Louis-based American Bottom Conservancy is concerned about the cumulative impacts of the many sources of air pollution. "Last year, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked the St. Louis area as the third worst in the nation for asthma," said Andria. "We have tens of thousands of children with asthma. Peabody will only add to those numbers and do further harm to our already sick kids. Since so many of those kids are low-income and minority, it is another instance of environmental injustice.

Pollution from the Peabody plant will also affect the air quality as far away as Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in the Missouri boot-heel. The Department of Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife service issued a report that Prairie State would have an “adverse impact” on Mingo. Visibility and air quality at the refuge would be impaired, similar to impacts seen in Shenandoah National Forest and the Grand Canyon. This is only the third time in the past 20 years that Fish and Wildlife has issued such a strong statement.

Illinois is leading the new rush for coal. Out of the 100 new coal-burning plants proposed for the nation, 12 of them, representing 14 percent of all proposed new generating capacity, are planned for Illinois. Although tougher air pollution standards were first proposed in 1997 by the Clinton administration, states won't be required to comply with them until the end of the decade.

"The Illinois constitution states that it is the public policy of the State to provide and maintain a healthful environment for Illinois' citizens. Granting this permit is inconsistent with that goal," said Jonathan Goldman, Executive Director of the Illinois Environmental Council. "Rather than adding more pollution to our environment, we need to start cleaning up existing plants. New dirty coal plants like Peabody's proposal should be rejected, and we should only allow new power plants that are state-of-the-art and meet strict pollution control standards."