IDEM to Hold Public Hearing on Coal Plant Pollution

The Sierra Club is questioning emission limits set on Vectren's A.B. Brown plant.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has proposed emission limits for sulfur dioxide from Vectren’s A.B. Brown plant in Posey County. A public hearing will be held next month to discuss the plan.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed Posey County among several regions throughout the country with power plant sources exceeding emissions standards for SO2 set in 2010. Those excess emissions come from the Vectren A.B. Brown plant’s coal-burning operations.

The Sierra Club says the emission limits proposed by the IDEM are "based on flawed modeling that will not assure that the concentration of air pollution stays below the health standard. Among other issues, IDEM did not take into account other major producers of SO2 in the area, such as Alcoa’s Warrick and Vectren’s E.B. Culley plants in Warrick County, Duke Energy’s plant in Gibson County and Big Rivers’ Robert D. Green plant in Webster County, Kentucky."

Of the other plants mentioned by the Sierra Club, only the Gibson County plant was listed alongside the A.B. Brown plant on the EPA listing. Other Indiana plants on the list include:

• Clifty Creek Power Plant – Jefferson County
• Michigan City Generating Station – LaPorte County
• Rockport Power Plant/Rockport Generating Station – Spencer County

The public hearing by the IDEM is scheduled for March 23 at 6:00 p.m. at the Mount Vernon Fire Station Training Room.