(EnergyAsia, March 10 2011, Thursday) — Three anti-pollution groups have filed a federal lawsuit aimed at cleaning up air pollution from the Lower Colorado River Authority’s (LCRA) coal-fired power plant located between Austin and Houston.

The lawsuit filed this week by the Environmental Integrity Project, Texas Campaign for the Environment, and Environment Texas claims the LCRA’s Fayette Power Project is in violation of the Clean Air Act and has violated that federal law thousands of times.

The lawsuit makes good on a July 2010 “notice of intent” that said the coal-fired Fayette power plant is violating one of the most important federal clean air protections, called “New Source Review,” by ramping up capacity and increasing levels of dangerous particle pollution without making required pollution control upgrades.

Particulate matter (PM) air pollution is not always visible to the eye, but is linked to asthma and to heart and lung disease.

The lawsuit alleges tens of thousands of violations of air pollution limits found in the power plant’s air pollution permits.

In addition, the groups claim that LCRA deprived the State of Texas more than US$500,000 in annual air pollution fees that are used to pay for the cost of clean air programs, by under-reporting the amount of particulate matter that is emitted into the air from the plant’s smokestacks in annual reports filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The Fayette Power Plant consists of three coal-fired boilers, designated as Units 1, 2, and 3, and associated facilities and material handling. Units 1 and 2, jointly owned by LCRA and the City of Austin, each have an electric generation capacity of approximately 600 megawatts. Unit 3 is owned solely by LCRA and has an electric generation capacity of approximately 450 megawatts. 

Luke Metzger, director, Environment Texas, said:

“These Clean Air Act violations mean higher levels of dangerous fine particle pollution for the general public and for our members living near the plant. The EPA and scientists have repeatedly said there is no safe level of exposure to fine particle pollution.”

Ilan Levin, senior attorney for Environmental Integrity Project, said:

“We have done everything we can to try to avoid a lawsuit, and we are still hopeful that we can work with LCRA to address these issues. But the public health costs are too high to allow business as usual at this coal-fired power plant. LCRA is slowly making some progress to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions, and we’re asking LCRA to pay attention to the other dangerous air contaminants it emits from its smokestacks.”

Robin Schneider, director for Texas Campaign for the Environment, said:

“For too long, LCRA has hidden behind their so-called Flexible Air Permit to avoid cleaning up dangerous smokestack emissions. Polluters in Texas need to understand that even if the state is not on the case, concerned citizen groups will seek to make sure that the federal law is upheld in this state.”