FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 9, 2005, 5:30 PM EST

FROM: Sierra Club and Valley Watch
RE: Hearing Officer Decision on Thoroughbred Generating Station air quality permit.

Contact:
Hank Graddy
859-846-4905
859-229-4033 cell
hgraddy@aol.com

John Blair, Valley Watch
812-464-5663
Ecoserve1@aol.com

ALL KENTUCKIANS CAN BREATHE EASIER TODAY

The Sierra Club and Valley Watch won an important victory for air quality today when the Environment and Public Protection Cabinet Hearing Officer recommended a remand of the air quality permit issued to the Peabody Coal’s Thoroughbred Generating Station in Muhlenburg County.

Hank Graddy, one of several attorneys representing the Sierra Club and Valley Watch, expressed his belief that all Kentuckians can breathe a little easier now that Peabody will need to consider cleaner coal technology and conduct more careful studies. “Now Peabody needs to go back and do it right. There is a better way for us to produce power without putting public health at risk. The courts have decided that our children’s health and safety needs to come first. Today, the Hearing Officer, in a detailed and thorough opinion, reached a similar conclusion.”

“This is a clear victory for safe air for all people who would be downwind from the Thoroughbred Generating Station. It has taken a long time since we first questioned the plant in 2001, but Ms. Thompson’s decision today makes it all worthwhile,” asserted John Blair, president of Valley Watch, an organization based in Evansville, Indiana that joined with three individuals and the Sierra Club to challenge the permit.

Hearing Officer Janet Thompson’s 409 page opinion included findings and conclusions from a 73 day hearing, including the finding that,

“142. Where there is already a mercury advisory in Kentucky, where it is widely accepted that mercury loading in the environment comes largely from power plants, where there are vulnerable species and concerns from government scientists and other researchers about the effect of mercury from TGS on those species, and where TGS will contribute an additional 12% of mercury to existing sources, it was incumbent on the Cabinet to specifically evaluate the effect of that loading on ecological receptors. To determine whether the pollution from TGS will harm the animals in the Park, the animals’ exposure to those pollutants must be specifically studied, especially persistent bioaccumulative pollutants, in the food chain and in the water. This is because abiotic contaminants are transferred from the ambient environment into fauna at the greatest rates through the consumption of food and water.”

Sierra Club Conservation Chair for Kentucky, Betsy Bennett saw a connection between this opinion and the front page article in the August 7, 2005 Courier Journal, titled “Contaminated Bats? Mercury found in animals at Mammoth Cave.” “In addition to mercury found in the animal hair at Mammoth Cave, mercury is also a risk to human health,“ she stated. “The plant would have put our communities at risk by adding 12% to the mercury levels of the region, or 460 pounds of the toxic substance. Mercury puts our children at risk of learning disabilities and developmental disorders. This decision is a step toward solving that threat to the health of our children. Peabody’s strategy of trying to use old technology will only delay the start of work and the needed jobs that plant could bring to the region, “ she added.

One significant finding today was that other technologies including Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) and Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFB) should have been studied by Peabody and compared to their proposed use of conventional Pulverized Coal Combustion. That decision came as a result of the Clean Air Act’s requirement that the “Best Available Control Technology” or BACT should be installed on new sources.

Dr. Hilary Lambert, one of the individual petitioners, added, “This is a great first step on the long road toward better protection of Mammoth Cave National Park and Kentucky’s air quality.”

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