Groups object to new permit for Allen plant

Several regional and national environmental groups have teamed up to fight a proposed new airpollution permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis, saying the document doesn’t ensure that Shelby County’s largest polluter will comply with state and federal laws.

In a letter to the Health Department, the f ive groups said the draft permit, which would replace a current operating permit, fails to ensure adequate monitoring of plant discharges and doesn’t fully enforce pollution standards. As a result, the draft doesn’t comply with the federal Clean Air Act, state laws and local plans, they say.

The letter offered the only comments received so far in response to the draft permit, in which the Health Department spells out pollution limits for Allen, a coal-fired plant built in the late-1950s. It was submitted by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington, D.C., environmental law firm, the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and Earthjustice.

The letter also requests a public hearing, which the Health Department has slated for 6 p.m. Aug. 13 at Central Station.

Abel Russ, attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, said a stricter permit is needed.

“The Clean Air Act requires monitoring that can ensure public health and the environment,” he said. “This monitoring scheme doesn’t do that.”

Bob Rogers, pollutioncontrol manager for the Health Department, said he hasn’t reviewed the letter fully enough to respond.

“Some smart people spent a long time putting that letter together,” he said.

The Allen plant, located along McKellar Lake in the southwestern corner of the city, is the largest single source of air pollution in the county despite costly improvements undertaken by TVA in recent years. During 2012, it discharged a total of 13,137 tons of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, suspended particulates, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds. The nextlargest polluter, a Cargill plant, released 4,903 tons — barely one-third of the TVA plant’s emissions, ac- cording to Health Department figures.

The Allen facility already is subject to a 2011 consent degree between TVA and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency resolving alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at nearly a dozen coalfired plants in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky.

Under the decree, TVA must decide whether to install costly scrubbers at the Allen facility, convert it to another fuel source such as natural gas, or retire it.

That decision is still pending, TVA spokesman Mike Bradley said last week.