U.S. Government Reaches Clean Air Act Settlement with Electric Company

According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice, the Eastern Kentucky Power Cooperative utility company has entered into a settlement with the United States Government concerning violations of the Clean Air Act.

The utility company is based in Winchester, KY. The company's three plants generate electricity from coal. The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that the company had agreed to 750,000 penalty for the violations and spend roughly $650 million to update their pollution controls to regulation.

The government claims that the utility violated the Clean Air Act when it built modifications to two of its three plants. The utility allegedly made the modifications without seeking proper permits or building proper pollution controls. The utilities failure to comply with these components of federal law allowed it to increase its rates of steam and electricity production; the non-compliance also emitted double the maximum allowable level of pollutants in to the air.

Implementation of the pollution controls required by the settlement will decrease the utilities emissions of nitrogen oxides by roughly 8,000 tons and sulfur dioxide over 54,000 tons per year. The company will also work on controls to reduce the level of sulfuric acid mist emissions.

The Justice Department lauded the decision. Ronald J. Tenpas, acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said: Today's settlement is another example of the Justice Department's continued commitment to aggressively enforcing the Clean Air Act. The emissions reductions from this settlement are substantial, and we are pleased that East Kentucky has agreed to bring its facilities into compliance with important provisions of the Clean Air Act."