By FRANK DELANO
A community group fears that a power plant's plans to reduce air pollution will cloud the southern Maryland sky and reduce the region's supply of drinking water.
The coal-burning Morgantown Generating Plant sits beside the Potomac River at the end of the U.S. 301 bridge in Charles County, Md. Owned by Mirant Corp., the plant's two 700-foot-tall smokestacks are visible from much of the Potomac's Virginia shore in Westmoreland and King George counties.
"We're pleased that Mirant has responded so quickly to meeting the requirements of the Maryland Healthy Air Act," said Joe Martin of the Cobb Neck Citizens Alliance. "But we're concerned that the technology they've chosen to use to reduce emissions is going to put a strain on water supplies and create a more visible pollution scar than needs to be."
Maryland enacted new clean-air regulations this year. The law ordered reductions in pollutants by 2010 from Morgantown and six other coal-fired power plants.
Mirant applied last month to the Maryland Public Service Commission to install wet scrubbers on two new 400-foot-tall stacks to reduce discharges of sulfur dioxide and mercury.
Martin said the scrubbers will create large clouds of water vapor visible for miles across the river. In addition, the scrubbers will use an estimated 1.5 million gallons of water each day from new deep wells at the site.
According to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, an average household uses about 200 gallons of water each day.
On that basis, water usage by the Morgantown scrubbers would equal the needs of 7,500 homes. In 2004, the U.S. census counted 7,859 housing units in King George County. Most of them obtain water from wells.
Martin lives in one of 325 homes at Swan Point, about eight miles from the power plant. He said his community will eventually grow to 1,500 houses, all served by wells.
Colonial Beach, seven miles across the river from the plant, also may experience rapid residential growth. Approved rezonings could almost double the 2,026 houses in town in 2000. All of the existing homes obtain drinking water from wells.
Martin said vapor plumes over Morgantown and risks to water supplies could be reduced by using dry scrubbers.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, dry scrubbers use less water but do not achieve sulfur reductions comparable to those of wet scrubbers in large-scale applications such as power plants.
Misty Allen of Mirant said the company will spend $1.5 billion to install wet scrubbers at three Maryland plants. The effort will reduce total emissions of sulfur dioxide and mercury by 95 percent.
Allen said Mirant is also installing a coal barge facility at Morgantown. The dock, which will be able to unload a barge each day, "will introduce competition into our fuel-supply process," she said.
The 1,492-megawatt power plant presently uses about a trainload of coal a day. The plant also burns oil to supply enough power for 1.5 million houses.
Allen said barging coal will also give the company an opportunity to use low-sulfur coal to further reduce emissions and meet stricter limits.
According to press reports, American imports of low-sulfur coal from South America and Indonesia have skyrocketed in recent years as power companies seek to reduce pollution.
The Maryland Public Service Commission will hold hearings on the Morgantown scrubbers in February and April in Charles County, a PSC spokesman said.
To reach FRANK DELANO:
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com