This February, PennEnvironment was joined by Sierra Club to announce their plans to take legal action against Reliant Energy for repeatedly discharging illegal levels of potentially toxic metals into the nearby Conemaugh River.

These illegal discharges took place at Reliant’s Conemaugh Generating Station, a large coal-fired power plant located in New Florence, Pennsylvania, near Johnstown and about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. The facility emits more than 2 million gallons of wastewater each day into the Conemaugh River.

PennEnvironment’s notice letter contains a list of nearly 200 separate violations of the Clean Water Act since February 2005 by Reliant’s Conemaugh plant. Discharges of various metals exceeded both daily and monthly violations of allowable pollution levels.

Fouling our waters
Prominent among Reliant’s many alleged water pollution violations, the plant violated permit limits for discharges of selenium nearly every month since the limits took effect in February 2005.

Selenium is a pollutant that is suspected of causing developmental, reproductive and neurological disorders. Even at concentrations as low as three to eight parts per billion in water, selenium can cause a variety of detrimental health effects on local aquatic ecosystems. Yet Reliant’s effluent (before mixing with river water) regularly contains selenium at concentrations higher than 250 parts per billion.

In 2006, PennEnvironment released “Troubled Waters,” a study that utilized data gathered under the Freedom of Information Act, to show that Reliant’s Conemaugh power plant regularly violated its discharge limits for aluminum, boron, iron, manganese and selenium, and has also violated its monitoring requirements for mercury.

Following up on the release of “Troubled Waters,” PennEnvironment moved to take legal action when Reliant refused to take steps to bring the Conemaugh power plant into compliance with its clean water permits.

“Luckily, the federal Clean Water Act gives citizens a course of action to rein in illegal water polluters when regulators and the company are unwilling to address the problems themselves,” explained David Masur, director of PennEnvironment. “We knew it was time for action when a year had passed since we publicized the facility’s violations without anything being done to address the problem.”

Taking polluters to court
On Feb. 6, PennEnvironment and Sierra Club sent formal notice of the organizations’ intent to sue as required under the federal Clean Water Act. The letter gives the company 60 days to respond before legal action is taken, and alleges 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.

“Our environmental laws are meaningless if polluters can violate them with impunity,” said 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 notice to the violator. 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 the effects of acid mine drainage and industrial discharges. Acid mine drainage can enhance the harmful effect that some of the metals discharged from Reliant’s facility have on aquatic species.

PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club are represented by the nonprofit 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,” said Masur. “In 2001, while representing PennEnvironment, NELC won what is believed to be the largest citizen suit penalty against a water polluter in state 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, Pennsylvania. The payment established an endowment that funds local environmental restoration projects.”

Reliant’s violations were self-reported 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.