New stacks on the horizon in Morgantown
December 17, 2008 ·
Morgantown area residents may have noticed three new towers on the horizon. They’re all smokestacks for power plant projects.
Morgantown area residents may have noticed three new towers on the horizon. They’re all smokestacks for power plant projects.
One 500 foot tall smokestack belongs to Longview, a new coal-fired power plant under construction just outside of town. Company officials say construction is ahead of schedule and the plant could be operational in two years.
Allegheny Energy is installing two new smokestacks at existing coal-fired power plants, Fort Martin and Hatfields Ferry. They’re part of a new pollution control system.
“Scrubbers is the common term for an environmental control project that removes sulfur dioxide emissions from power station emissions,” said Allen Stagger, Allegheny Energy’s Manager of Communications. “In addition to constructing the scrubbers modules, a new chimney is constructed at the station. That will vent the gases that go through the plant once the scrubbers are in service.”
Staggers says the scrubbers at Fort Martin and Hatfields Ferry should be online sometime next year. Staggers says with the scrubbers, sulfur dioxide pollution will decrease by 90%. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain.
“Scrubbers also do have the added benefit of reducing mercury emissions as well. Although, it’s not a technology specifically designed for mercury reductions, it does have that co-benefit,” said Staggers.
The scrubbers do not reduce carbon dioxide, which is a leading cause of climate change. Coal-fired power plants are the top source of carbon dioxide emissions in the nation.
The old smoke stacks will not be used once the new scrubbers and chimneys are working, but the old stacks will remain standing.
Allegheny Energy installed scrubbers at its Harrison County and Pleasants County plants in the 1990s. Congress created the national Acid Rain Program in 1990 to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions.