Oklaunion Power Station
{{#badges: CoalSwarm}} Oklaunion Power Station is a 720.0-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station owned and operated by American Electric Power (AEP) near Vernon, Texas.
Contents
Location
Plant Data
- Owner: Public Service Company of Oklahoma
- Parent Company: American Electric Power
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 720.0 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 720.0 MW (1986)
- Location: 12567 F.M. Rd. 3430, Vernon, TX 76384
- GPS Coordinates: 34.08, -99.179167
- Technology: Subcritical
- Coal type: Sub Bituminous
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Source: Eagle Butte Mine, Buckskin Mine[1]
- Number of Employees:
- Unit Retirements: Scheduled for retirement in 2020.[2]
Emissions Data
- 2006 CO2 Emissions: 4,431,483 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions: 3,794 tons
- 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- 2006 NOx Emissions: 7,352 tons
- 2005 Mercury Emissions: 159 lb.
Plant Retirement
In September 2018 AEP said it will retire the plant in 2020 because it cannot compete with cheaper power from gas and renewables.
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Oklaunion Power Station
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.[3] 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.[4]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Oklaunion Power Station
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 7 | $50,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 11 | $1,200,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 120 | $6,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 5 | $120,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 4 | $1,900,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 8 | $3,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Coal waste Sites
- Oklaunion Power Station Pond Number 23
- Oklaunion Power Station Pond Number 6
- Oklaunion Power Station Sludge Pond
Oklaunion ranked 92nd 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.[5] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[6]
Oklaunion Power Station ranked number 92 on the list, with 254,652 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[5]
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "EIA 423 and Schedule 2 of EIA-923," EIA 923 Schedules 2, 2011.
- ↑ "AEP to retire Oklaunion coal plant due to renewables, gas competition," Utility Dive, Sep 25, 2018
- ↑ "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
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 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
- Existing U.S. Coal Plants
- Texas and coal
- American Electric Power
- United States and coal
- Global warming
External Articles
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