North Carolina sues Tennessee Valley Authority for excessive air pollution

NORTH CAROLINA - One of the states served by the Tennessee Valley Authority accused the federal utility of being "a public nuisance" for spewing too much pollution in the air.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper sued TVA for what he said are excessive amounts of smog, soot and chemical contaminants emitted from the utility's 11 coal-fired power plants.

"TVA's pollution is making North Carolinians sick, damaging our economy and harming our environment," Mr. Cooper said at a news conference in Charlotte, N.C. "It must stop."

TVA officials said they are reducing pollution from coal plants more than utilities in North Carolina and already comply with increasingly stringent federal rules.

Since 1977, TVA has spent $4.4 billion to cut sulfur and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal plants by 80 percent. The utility is preparing to spend nearly as much again to make more improvements by 2020.

"The lawsuit would do nothing to clean up the air," TVA Chairman Bill Baxter said Monday. "Regional solutions such as the Clean Air Interstate Rule are the appropriate and most effective way of continuing the improvement in air quality, not unilateral state actions such as North Carolina's lawsuit."

Mr. Cooper estimated that out-of-state power plant emissions that drift into North Carolina cause more than 15,000 illnesses and hundreds of emergency room visits each year. He said wants the Environmental Protection Agency to order TVA to do more to clean up its aging coal-fired plants.

The North Carolina Justice Department, which has threatened to sue TVA for pollution problems for more than a year, is suing TVA under state public nuisance standards and under section 126 of the federal Clean Air Act.

TVA is the only utility named in the lawsuit.

Eight Northeastern states sued TVA under the public nuisance standard in 2004, but the court dismissed that claim in September.

TVA is conducting a $5.7 billion cleanup program to meet existing standards and expects the proposed Clear Skies regulations will cost another $3 billion to $3.5 billion to meet, TVA spokesman John Moulton said.

"Why single out only TVA when we're doing more than anybody to clean up our plants?" Mr. Moulton asked.

From 2002 to 2004, TVA said it reduced its sulfur dioxide emissions by 55,000 tons and had a cut in emissions of nitrogen oxides by more than 60,000 tons. In the same period, coal plants in North Carolina increased their sulfur dioxide emissions by 10,000 tons and cut nitrogen oxide emissions by only 28,000 tons, Mr. Moulton said.

TVA has installed scrubbers on six units at its fossil plants and has plans to put scrubbers on another four units.

Mr. Cooper said he is only asking TVA to meet the same standards as utilities in North Carolina.

"Legal action is the last resort, but it's necessary to force TVA to do what's right," he said.

Will Callaway, executive director of the Tennessee Environmental Council in Nashville, said officials in North Carolina is doing more to try to clean up their air than are their counterparts in Tennessee.

Mr. Callaway said that Tennessee sued North Carolina in the 1980s over pollution from the Pigeon River that flows from North Carolina into Tennessee.

"As these cases demonstrate, pollution knows no boundaries," he said.