LG&E power plants slash toxic-air pollution

Louisville’s two largest power plants have dramatically cut air pollution through tighter smokestack controls at one site and converting another from coal-powered to natural gas, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and local air officials.

The pollution reductions follow enforcement of the Clean Air Act during the eight years of the Obama administration.

EPA's Toxics Release Inventory is only one measure of pollution, a national database of industry's self-reporting of nearly 600 different toxic chemicals. EPA updated that inventory last week, and it shows big drops at LG&E's Mill Creek and Cane Run power plants for a type of air pollution that contributes to dangerous particulates.

"When you spend a couple of billion dollars, it's good to see that you get some results," said Rachael Hamilton, assistant director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, of investments by LG&E and KU Energy in Louisville.

The tiny particles are so small they can pass from the lungs into people's blood, causing problems for healthy or sick people, according to medical research and the EPA. The American Lung Association of Kentucky counts tens of thousands of area residents with heart and lung ailments, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The big loser from new pollution controls at Mill Creek, which burns coal, and at Cane Run, which has converted from coal to natural gas half way through 2015, is sulfuric acid mist, according to the Toxics Release Inventory. At Mill Creek, the company reported sending 1.7 million pounds of that chemical up its stacks and into Louisville air in 2015, down from 4 million pounds the year before, or a 57 percent decrease.  The TRI shows Cane Run lowered its sulfuric acid mist pollution from 2 million pounds in 2014 to 610,000 pounds in 2015 - a drop of about 70 percent.

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Overall, Jefferson County toxic air emissions from 2014 to 2015 fell 35 percent from 7.2 million pounds to 4.7 million pounds, with the LG&E plants leading the way.

The two plants - combined with a third coal plant in New Albany - could just a few years ago spread a visible blanket of smoke across Louisville. Duke's Gallagher plant in New Albany has sharply reduced its energy output and pollution, and the company has said it will end coal-burning there by the end of 2022 or sooner.

Cane Run and Mill Creek are also reporting big reductions in nitrogen oxides, which contribute to lung-damaging ozone and particulates. They are are not tracked by the Toxic Release Inventory but are nevertheless bad for breathing, and the region still struggles to meet the federal ozone standard. The air district's latest numbers for nitrogen oxides emissions at Cane Run show a decline from 4.5 million pounds in 2014 to 1.6 million pounds in 2015 or 64 percent. That should drop even more when the 2016 data is in, reflecting a full year of burning much cleaner natural gas.

At Mill Creek, the nitrogen oxides emissions went from 11.2 million pounds in 2014 to 8.5 million pounds in 2015.

Hamilton said the district is seeing the benefits of the pollution controls across its network of air monitors. The city had been violating the national health standard for sulfur dioxide at the district's Watson Lane Elementary School monitor but has seen a nearly 90 drop in peak readings there over the last three years, she said.

In 2015, EPA took the Louisville area off its list of cities that fail to meet the latest clean-air standard for the smallest particulates. But the federal agency did not go as far as saying the Louisville region complies with the standard, because there wasn't enough reliable data. City officials are working to change that and bring the region into compliance and have said power plant improvements are helping.

Reach reporter James Bruggers at 502-582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-journal.com.