Hugo Plant
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Hugo Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Western Farmers Electric Cooperative near Hugo, Oklahoma.
Contents
Background on Unit 2 Proposal
Oklahoma-based Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC) and Brazos Electric Power Cooperative of Waco, TX proposed a 750 MW coal-fired plant near Ft. Towson, Oklahoma in 2006. Hugo 2 would have been located adjacent to WFEC’s existing 450 megawatt Hugo 1 plant. WFEC would have received 250 MW from the plant, and Brazos would have received 500 MW.[1]
The final air permit for the plant was issued in Feb. 2007, and was valid for 18 months. According to the Sierra Club, as of Oct. 2007 the sponsoring utilities were having difficulty finding additional sponsors for the project.[2]
In June 2008, the Oklahoma DEQ approved an eighteen-month extension on the final air permit for the proposed plant. As of August 2008, WFEC hadn't started construction.[3]
In January, 2010, the Sierra Club reported that WFEC has abandoned the project.[4]
Unit 2 Details
Sponsor: Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative
Location: Fort Townsend, OK
Capacity: 750 MW
Status: Cancelled
Financing for Unit 2
Plant Data
- Owner/Parent Company: Western Farmers Electric Cooperative
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 446 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: 446 MW (1982)
- Location: Hwy. 70, Hugo, OK 74743
- GPS Coordinates: 34.013611, -95.325611
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Source:
- Number of Employees:
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 3,200,063 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions: 9,363 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions: 3,678 tons
- 2005 Mercury Emissions: 191 lb.
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Hugo Plant
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[5] Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[6]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Hugo Plant
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 5 | $37,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 8 | $840,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 89 | $5,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 3 | $86,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 3 | $1,400,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 6 | $2,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Hugo ranked 89th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste
In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill.[7] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[8]
Hugo Plant ranked number 89 on the list, with 275,203 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[7]
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "Western Farmers Electric Gets $133.6 M in Loans from Government", The Journal Record, August 31, 2006.
- ↑ "Stopping the Coal Rush", Sierra Club, accessed December 2007. (This is a Sierra Club list of new coal plant proposals.)
- ↑ "Stopping the Coal Rush", Sierra Club, accessed November 2008. (This is a Sierra Club list of new coal plant proposals.)
- ↑ "Stopping the Coal Rush", Sierra Club, accessed February 2010 (This is a Sierra Club list of new coal plant proposals.)
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Sue Sturgis, "Coal's ticking timebomb: Could disaster strike a coal ash dump near you?," Institute for Southern Studies, January 4, 2009.
- ↑ TRI Explorer, EPA, accessed January 2009.
- Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
- Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
- Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.
- Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed Feb. 2009.
Related SourceWatch Articles
- Hugo 2
- Existing U.S. Coal Plants
- Oklahoma and coal
- Western Farmers Electric Cooperative
- United States and coal
- Global warming
