JOHNSTOWN, PA– Two
environmental groups and their local members announced today that they
intend to sue Reliant Energy, Inc., for repeatedly discharging more
than two million gallons of wastewater per day containing illegal
levels of potentially toxic metals into the Conemaugh River from the company’s Conemaugh Generating Station, a large coal-fired power plant located in New Florence, Pennsylvania.
In
a formal notice letter sent today to the company, PennEnvironment and
the Sierra Club allege that Reliant is liable for numerous violations
of its Clean Water Act discharge permit on practically every day the
Conemaugh Station has operated over the past two years.
“Last March, PennEnvironment released a study entitled Troubled Waters,
which used data gathered under the Freedom of Information Act to show
that Reliant’s Conemaugh power plant was regularly violating its clean
water permit limits for aluminum, boron, iron, manganese, and selenium,
and had also violated its monitoring requirements for mercury,”
explained David Masur, director of PennEnvironment. “Yet here we are,
nearly a year later, and nothing has changed.”
The
groups’ notice letter contains a list of nearly 200 separate violations
of the Conemaugh plant’s daily maximum and monthly average discharge
limits for various metals since February 2005. These violations were
reported by Reliant itself, in monthly discharge monitoring reports
submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP). The Conemaugh River has been designated as an “impaired” water body by the DEP because of its high concentration of metals.
“Our
environmental laws are meaningless if polluters can violate them with
impunity,” said Sierra Club Sierra Club Legal Chair Dara Lovitz. “When
persistent violations are not addressed, our federal environmental laws
allow affected citizens to take matters into their own hands and
enforce the law.”
The
federal Clean Water Act contains a “citizen suit” provision that allows
private citizens affected by violations to bring an enforcement suit in
federal court after providing 60 days prior notice to the violator and
to state and federal environmental agencies. Citizens can seek a court
order requiring compliance with the law and a monetary penalty of up to
$32,500 per day for each violation of the Act.
PennEnvironment and Sierra Club are concerned that Reliant’s illegal discharges of metals may impede efforts to restore the Conemaugh River,
which has long suffered from the effects of acid mine drainage and
industrial discharges. The harmful effects that some of the metals
discharged from Reliant’s facility may have on aquatic species can be
enhanced by acidic water.
Prominent
among Reliant’s many alleged water pollution violations, the groups’
notice letter alleges that Reliant has violated permit limits for
discharges of selenium nearly every month since the limits took effect
in February 2005. Selenium, even at concentrations as low as 3 to 8
parts per billion in water, can cause reduced survival of larval
offspring and juvenile fish. Selenium can also have reproductive
effects on waterfowl. Reliant’s effluent (before mixing with river
water) regularly contains selenium at concentrations higher than 250
parts per billion.
PennEnvironment
and the Sierra Club are represented by the non-profit National
Environmental Law Center (NELC), which sent the notice letter on their
behalf.
“NELC has a track record of environmental legal victories across the nation and here in Pennsylvania,”
stated Masur. “In 2001, for example, NELC won what is believed to be
the largest citizen suit penalty against a water polluter in Pennsylvania
history – a $2 million payment by P.H. Glatfelter Company for illegal
discharges from its pulp and paper mill into the Codorus Creek,
upstream of York. The payment was used to establish an endowment that funds local environmental restoration projects.”
