That oldtime emission

In a letter to the BWL dated March 13, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the BWL made two sets of "major modifications" to its 45-year-old Erickson power plant, one in 2010-‘11 and another in late 2012, that "resulted in a significant net emissions increase," mainly of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and particulate matter.

The agency found that the BWL didn´t apply for the necessary permits or install "appropriate emission control equipment."

EPA spokeswoman Philippa Cannon said a meeting with BWL officials has been set for Monday.

BWL spokesman Stephen Serkaian declined to comment on the EPA finding.

The EPA can order the utility to pay a fine or sue for "injunctive relief and/or civil penalties."

To reduce possible fines, the BWL could agree to a "supplemental" project that reduces pollution in the area to compensate for its violations. Dearborn´s Severstal Steel settled with the EPA for pollution violations in 2006 by planting trees and retrofitting school buses with pollution control devices.

Whatever the result of the EPA finding, the problems at Erickson throw a new layer of sediment on top of concerns over the utility´s oldest plant, the 60-year old Eckert Power Station.

In early March, the Sierra Club announced that it intends to sue the BWL over more than 3,500 emissions violations at Eckert from 2009 to 2013. The utility self-reported the violations to Michigan´s Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ.

Neither the Sierra Club nor the BWL had any comment on whether, or when, the suit will be filed.

Brad van Guilder, organizer of the Sierra Club´s Beyond Coal campaign, said the suit contemplated against the BWL is "virtually identical" to a May 2013 suit the Sierra Club filed against Detroit´s DTE Energy over repeated "opacity violations" (particulate matter and mists).

Lansing´s BWL is much smaller than DTE, but its coal-fired plants are dirtier, Van Guilder said. The Sierra Club sued DTE over 1,200 violations across four plants, compared to twice as many violations over half as many plants at Lansing´s BWL.

Serkaian said the BWL is in "ongoing negotiations" with the Sierra Club over the potential lawsuit and declined to comment further.

If the Eckert plant is sending out smoke signals, they might be reading, "For God´s sake, pull the plug."

"It´s time to close Eckert," said James Clift, policy director at the Michigan Environmental Council.

The Eckert plant is by far the biggest emitter of particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, mercury, carbon dioxide and sulfur and nitrogen oxides in the tri-county area of Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, dwarfing polluters such as GM’s Grand River and Delta plants and the BWL´s Erickson plant, on Canal Road just south of Mt. Hope Avenue in Delta Township.

BWL’s interim general manager, Dick Peffley, submitted a sober diagnosis for Eckert at a meeting April 14. Peffley told the utility´s Committee of the Whole that "operations and maintenance costs [at Eckert] have been increasing while generation reliability has been decreasing." Impending regulations on greenhouse gas emissions will make the Eckert plant even more expensive to run in the future, Peffley said.

But Eckert, with its famed three smokestacks, is still capable of producing 290 megawatts of electricity. The utility said it needs that capacity to meet regulatory requirements for contingency planning.

One of Eckert´s six generating units, Unit 2, has already been shut down. At the April 14 meeting, Peffley said two more units at Eckert, 1 and 3, will be closed by March 2016 to meet new federal rules on mercury and air toxics emissions. The rules went into effect this month, but BWL was granted a one-year extension that will expire next April.

As recently as July 2013, then-BWL General Manager J. Peter Lark told City Pulse that Eckert´s three newer turbines were scheduled to be phased out by 2017. However, the utility´s more recent projections might have the Eckert plant wheezing into the early 2020s.

Serkaian said the utility is working on a five-to-seven -year plan, costing about $100 million, to refurbish transmission lines and rebuild and repair six new substations, "all with an eye toward retirement of Eckert."

"We haven´t done the kind of work that would give our system a reliable backup if Eckert goes away," Serkaian said.

After Eckert is retired, Peffley said, the BWL will need to make up the deficit in electric generation. He said the power could come from "a number of sources," including building a new power plant, ramping up renewable energy, smart grid options, and buying energy on the open market.

Serkaian said a new plant — or more than one — is inevitable. 

"The issue isn´t whether a new generating plant or plants are built, but how and when, given the age of Eckert," Serkaian said.

By the end of the year, Serkaian said, the BWL will "conduct and complete" Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, to chart its future energy course.

He didn´t have details on the process or structure, but said it would "include community people."

Clift hopes the BWL won´t repeat the debacle of 2008, when it rolled out a proposed $1 billion coal plant recommended by a consulting firm and set off a firestorm of community opposition. As a result, the BWL instead built a natural gas and electricity cogeneration plant on Washington Avenue that opened in 2013. "Have they changed their ways?" Clift asked. "Are they really going to design a process that is open to community participation?"

Clift said the BWL´s mix of options could include a new plant, but "the smallest we can get away with."

By combining solar, wind and energy efficiency, Van Guilder said BWL could close Eckert in three years.

"With a good community process, we could put price tags on these things and decide what combination of these investments make sense in the long term," Clift said.

Across the state, the costs of wind and solar power are falling dramatically. The BWL signed a power purchase agreement in July 2013 for 20 MW of wind from turbines near St. Johns. "Those turbines were built and in service by the end of 2014," Van Guilder said. "BWL could purchase substantially more wind power at a great rate."

The BWL has proposed a 20-megawatt solar array in Lansing, which, if completed, would be the largest in the state.

Clift said much more can be done with high-tech efficiency measures such as smart metering and variable pricing to reduce demand during peak hours.

Van Guilder said the new leadership at BWL has shown "a greater seriousness about addressing the real structural issues" the BWL has, but he´s concerned about the IRP process coming up later this year.

"Rolling out a plan for a rubber stamp is not the way to get buy-in from the community," Van Guilder said. "They need to learn from what they tried to do in 2008."