McIntosh Steam Plant
McIntosh Steam Plant (also known as Effingham Steam Plant) is a retired coal-fired power station in Rincon, Georgia.
Contents
Retirement
The sole 178 MW coal unit at the power station is planned for closure in 2019. The gas units at the power station will remain in operation.[1]
The coal-fired unit was retired in July 2019.[2]
Plant Data
- Owner: Savannah Electric & Power Company
- Parent Company: Southern Company
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 178 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: 178 MW (1979)
- Location: 981 Old Augusta Rd., Rincon, GA 31326
- GPS Coordinates: 32.355833, -81.168333
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Sources (2009)[3]
- CONSOL Energy Motts Branch (Kentucky)
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 868,039 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions:
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions:
- 2005 Mercury Emissions:
Coal Waste Site
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from McIntosh Steam 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.[4] 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.[5]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from McIntosh Steam Plant
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 10 | $72,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 14 | $1,500,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 160 | $9,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 7 | $170,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 6 | $2,700,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 9 | $4,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Legislative issues
House Bill 276, proposed by Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), would put a 5-year moratorium on building new coal plants and eliminate the burning of Appalachian coal mined by mountaintop removal by mid-2016. The Appalachian Mountain Preservation Act would gradually prohibit Georgia coal consumers from using Central Appalachian mountaintop removal beginning in 2011. The bill is backed by environmental groups including Appalachian Voices but received strong opposition from POWER4Georgians, a coalition of 10 electric co-operatives seeking to build a $2 billion 850-megawatt supercritical coal plant in Washington County.[6][7]
Citizen groups
- CleanPower4Georgians
- Fall-line Alliance for Clean Environment
- Focus the Nation
- Friends of the Chattahoochee
- GreenLaw
- Sierra Club Georgia Chapter
- Co-op Conversations Georgia
- Cobb Alliance for Smart Energy
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "Georgia Power submits plan to close 865MW coal plant Hammond," Energy Central, February 12, 2019
- ↑ "Table 6.4. Retired Utility Scale Generating Units by Operating Company, Plant, and Month, 2019," US EIA, 10/24/2019
- ↑ Energy Information Administration Form 923 for 2009
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "Georgia bill proposes moratorium on new coal plants," Reuters, February 4, 2009.
- ↑ Margaret Newkirk, "Bill would restrict coal power plants," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 4, 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
- Existing U.S. Coal Plants
- Georgia and coal
- Southern Company
- United States and coal
- Global warming
- Coal
