Sierra Club requests new permit to curb emissions

Date: 11/15/2011

Nov. 16, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

HOLYOKE — Virgenmina Perez’s family had no history of asthma before moving to Holyoke in 1983. Now five members of her family suffer from the disease.

Her story is an all too common one in the Paper City, where asthma rates are higher than the state average.

Representatives from The Sierra Club have met with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to request that the state issue an up-to-date air quality permit to the Mount Tom Power Plant, which would force the coal-burning electrical generator to reduce its emissions of sulfur dioxide.

According to Drew Grande, the Massachusetts state organizer for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign, the state’s decision may come within the next several weeks.

Grande led a press conference at the playground behind the Holyoke YMCA on Nov. 10 explaining the levels of sulfur dioxide from the plant have led to high rates of asthma in Holyoke.

With a map of the city showing where the emissions from the Mount Tom Plant go in the background, Laura Porter, program coordinator for the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council, explained that Holyoke has an “astronomically higher” rate of asthma. While the state’s rate is 10 percent, Holyoke has a nearly 30 percent rate of occurrence.

She said that so far this school year, health officials at the city’s schools have administered 1,296 doses of asthma medication.

Grande explained the Mount Tom plant was built in 1960, a decade before the restrictions imposed by the Clean Air Act came into being. The plant has been operating under a Title V air permit issued by the DEP in 2002, but that permit expired on Dec. 31, 2006.

The lapsed permit allows the plant to emit so much sulfur dioxide that the Pioneer Valley can not reach the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) levels for sulfur dioxide. The EPA’s level for sulfur dioxide is an hourly standard of 196.2 micrograms per cubic meter. According to the Sierra Club, if the Mount Tom facility is being operated as currently permitted, the ambient concentrations of sulfur dioxide is up to 3,693 micograms per cubic meter at ground level.

Grande noted the plant is owned by GDF-Suez, headquartered in Paris, France. There have been changes at the plant, including a layoff of about half the workforce, he said, which indicates that the parent company may be preparing to shut down the plant.

Jane Andresen, a Holyoke resident and member of the Action for a Healthy Holyoke Coalition, expressed concern about a shutdown done without involvement from the community and a plan for clean-up and potential redevelopment. She said the City Council recently approved the formation of a citizen advisory group that would help in that effort.

“The Action for a Healthy Holyoke Coalition has been working hard to ensure that the city has a plan in place for when this coal plant retires. We don’t want to be left with a dirty, abandoned site when the plant is gone. And we want to pave the way for Holyoke to bring in cleaner energy and cleaner jobs,” Andresen said.

The Mount Tom plant was one of three coal-fired generators left in the state. The one in Somerset shut down earlier this year and sits vacant, while the one in Salem is going through a re-use effort, she added.