THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
6A NEWS COAL PLANT (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2009
Graphic by Drew Bergman
Lawrence's coal-fired power plant, the Lawrence Energy Center, rests along the banks of the Kansas River, about five miles north of the Kansas Union.
Bill Eastman, director of environmental services for Westar, said he believes the rating is unfair because the EPA hasn't been regulating plants for greenhouse gases. But on April 17, the EPA announced that greenhouse gases endanger public health. The announcement was considered the agency's first step toward requiring limitations on these pollutants.
While some residents voice their concern about the LEC's pollution in the air, others, such as Laura Calwell, with the Kansas River advocacy group Friends of the Kaw, worry about the plant's effects on local waterways. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment advises against eating fish from the Kansas River in areas around Lawrence because of severe pollution in the water.
But others don't believe the plant's effects on Lawrence are significant.
"The emissions that come out of that plant, very little of it falls in Douglas County," said Ted Boyle, president of the North Lawrence Neighborhood Improvement Association. "It's airborne and goes 50, 60 to 100 miles. It doesn't just come out of the stack and drop to the ground. There's probably less of it here than there is 100 miles from here."
The LEC has been powering Lawrence homes and businesses and sending billowing clouds of smoke into the air from its three tall stacks since its opening in 1971.
LAWRENCE ENERGY CENTER EMISSIONS
"There is no question that anyone who spends any amount of time in Douglas County will be breathing air from the Lawrence Energy Center," said Karl Brooks, associate professor of history and environmental studies.
The LEC emitted more than 8,300 tons of air pollutants in 2007,the latest figures available, according to KDHE emission
summaries. Will Stone, engineer with KDHE, said these pollutants, considered criteria pollutants, are measured by the EPA because they are known to pose threats to human health and the overall health of the environment.
The LEC is also responsible for emitting smaller quantities of toxins such as mercury and lead. Compared with the 4,600 tons of nitrogen oxide released by the plant in 2007, KDHE hazardous air pollution emission summaries showed
that only .09 tons of mercury were released. However, this accounted for 100 percent of Lawrence facility mercury emissions. Mercury exposure can cause neurological damage, emotional changes, muscle weakness and respiratory failure, according to the EPA.
Coal-fired plants are responsible for more than 40 percent of all human-caused mercury emissions, according to the EPA.
The LEC emitted .17 tons of lead in 2007. Stone described the
emissions as low, though KDHE emissions summaries show that the LEC was responsible for 100 percent of lead emissions in Lawrence in 2007. According to the EPA, areas near utilities such as coalfired plants have higher levels of lead in the air. Brooks said exposure to lead could lead to muscle, joint and developmental problems in humans.
COAL EFFECTS IN OUR RIVER
The LEC is situated on the south bank of the Kansas River, about five
miles north of the University. Though eating fish from the river might not be something students need to do to get by, some residents rely on fish from the river as a cheap source of food.
Calwell, river keeper for Friends of the Kaw, said mercury from the coal-fired plant comes into the river through the air.
"A lot of times, mercury in the air settles down in the land and water and turns into a form of mercury that little tiny plants eat, and goes up the food chain and gets into the fish tissue." Calwell said.
Calwell said that if enough mercury got into a person's system from eating too much contaminated fish, it could cause memory, behavioral and developmental problems.
Don Huggins, senior scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey, said he didn't think there were too many serious threats to the river and its aquatic life because of the LEC.
But he does see an issue of environmental justice when it comes to fishing. Huggins said some ethnic groups in Lawrence living at or below the poverty line were more likely than others to eat fish
KARL BROOKS Associate professor
"There is no question that anyone who spends any amount of time in Douglas County will be breathing air from the Lawrence Energy Center."
from the river because it was cheap. Calwell said Vietnamese and other Asian populations in Lawrence often fish from the river because fishing is a part of their culture.
"I can go buy wild-caught Pacific salmon, where someone else may only have the option to catch from the river below Bowersock Dam," Huggins said. "We have to look at the needs of our most limited members of the community."
Bowersock Dam, which is visible from the bridge over the Kansas River from Massachusetts Street, marks an important spot on the
Chance Dibben/KANSAN
Chaz Steele, Lawrence senior said he believed up downmind from the coalfired Lawrence Energy Center contributed to severe asthma attacks during his childhood. Now able to do things such as exercise and drive his motorcycle without breathing problems, Steele credits his improved respiratory health to settling in and moving away from his parents' home.
Chance Dibben/KANSAN
The Bowersock Dam is located on the Kansas River at the Massachusetts Street bridge. Because of dangerous chemicals such as mercury and chlorinated biphenyls, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment advised residents against consuming bottom-feeding fish below the Bowersock Dam.
river. The KDHE recently released a 2009 fish advisory, which warned residents about what fish from the river were safe to eat. The advisory recommended that no one eat bottom-feeding fish, including catfish and sturgeons, from below the Bowersock Dam downstream to Eudora because of
COAL EFFECTS IN OUR AIR
health risks involved with mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. PCBs are known carcinogens and can cause adverse health effects similar to those of mercury. Levels of these contaminants in the river are considered too high for safe fish consumption.
Carol Ramm, registered respiratory therapist with the American Lung Association, said communities situated near coal-fired power plants have higher incidences of respiratory illnesses such as asthma
than communities without the pollution associated with coal-fired plants.
Studies show the asthma incident rate in Douglas County is more than twice that of the national average.
According to the 2006 National Health Interview Survey, about 7 percent of adults in the U.S. have asthma. According to a 2006 to 2007 Kansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, nearly 15 percent of adults in Douglas County currently have asthma or have had asthma in their lifetime.
Weiner, who practices at Asthma Allergy and Rheumatology Associates, 346 Maine St., said living near a coal-fired plant had more negative effects on children, the elderly and those who already have asthma, but negative repercussions were not limited to those groups. He said he expected the plant to have negative effects on lung health for all Lawrence residents.
Moving wasn't an option for Chaz Steele, who grew up in Lawrence. Steele has dealt with asthma for most of his life and is familiar with the tightening feeling in his chest.
"But aside from wearing a mask to filter out stuff in the air, I don't know what other things people could do," Weiner said. "It's either that or you could move."
"It feels like someone is taking their hands and just squeezing my lungs, or like there's a twoton elephant sitting on my chest," Steele said. "I just can't get a breath in."
Steele grew up
close to the LEC. Boyle, president of the North Lawrence Improvement Association for 13 years, said the coal-fired plant wasn't discussed much in his association. He said he didn't think the plant directly affected people living in neighborhoods around it.
Steele grew up not wanting to let asthma get in his way. He didn't stay indoors to play, although at times he knew he should have. Growing up, he played hard with the other kids and often paid for it with trips to the nurse's office and asthma attacks a few times per week. With age, Steele learned how to handle his asthma. He is a registered emergency medical technician and said his training has made him more aware of the physical processes of his asthma.
Unlike Steele, some Lawrence residents see no harm in living
"As opposed to letting myself get to the point where I need the inhaler, I try to just slow myself down so I don't have to use it," Steele said.
"We don't receive a lot of the emissions from the power plant because the winds blow from the south in the summer and north in the winter," Boyle said. "So it just generally bypasses us."
Although Steele said it's normal for the severity of asthma to decline with age, he still uses his albuterol inhaler every week.
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The American Lung Association and the EPA have a different view. Communities settled around coal-fired plants have higher levels of asthma and other respiratory illnesses because pollutants linger in the area. The EPA stated in its Clear Skies study in 2004 that asthma-inducing pollutants such as sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides can remain in the air near coal plants for days or even years as small solid particles or liquid droplets.
"It feels like someone is taking their hands and just squeezing my lungs, or like there's a two-ton elephant sitting on my chest."
NEIGHBORHOOD
THOUGHTS ON THE LEC
Boyle isn't the only one who isn't fazed by the LEC's presence in Lawrence. Residents involved in local real estate said the plant rarely surfaces in conversations about housing in the area. Doug Stephens, president of Stephens Real Estate, said that in his 20 years with the company, he hadn't heard many complaints about the LEC.
Dennis Snodgrass, president of McGrew Real Estate, echoed Stephens' opinions on the area around the LEC.
"it's not like it's something new, they know what's there, they know they can see it," Stephens said.
CHAZ STEELE Lawrence senior
"The idea that coal is the cheap fuel source of the future is bogus."
"Every neighborhood has its
SCOTT ALLEGRUCCI GPACE director
pluses and minuses," Snodgrass said. "North Lawrence has bigger lots and is a little more rural, which draws a lot of people to it. A lot of people are okay with having the plant up north."
Snodgrass compared the LEC with other things people sometimes preferred not to live near, such as train tracks or power lines.
According to Trulia.com, a real estate research company, the average home price in April for homes in the North Lawrence neighborhoods, those closest to the LEC, was about $139,000. The average home prices for other neighborhoods west of North Lawrence averaged at least $200,000.
But August Dettbarn, appraiser at the Douglas County Appraisers Office, said calculating the difference in Lawrence home values by neighborhood was a difficult task. He said neighborhoods commonly referred to, such as the student ghetto or Old West Lawrence, are different from neighborhoods used to evaluate real estate. Dettbarn said real estate neighborhoods are divided into much smaller sections. Appraisers estimated that if home values in the sections were similar enough, people would be willing to live in any other home in the neighborhood. He said he didn't know whether the LEC had any
"But after people live there for a bit, they don't even notice it anymore," Snodgrass said. "I would see the plant as something similar, I don't think it's going to detract value."
effects on the home prices in areas around the coal-fired plant.
THE TRUE COST OF COAL
Coal has long been considered the cheap fuel source for Americans. Coal provides more than 75 percent of electric energy for Kansans, according to the Energy Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy.
But Scott Allelgrucci, director of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy, or GPACE, said coal only appears to be a cheap fuel source. He said the health costs associated with getting energy from coal should be considered as well.
"The idea that coal is the cheap fuel source of the future is bogus," Allegrucci said.
The EPA and the Kansas Corporation Commission figure that an additional $20 dollars in
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