Sandersville Tech College

Plant Washington air permit tightens limits

Georgia environmental regulators are accepting public comments about a proposed air pollution permit for a new 850-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Washington County.

The estimated $2 billion Plant Washington project has received its other required environmental permits, while the air permit has been revised in response to a court order.

If built, the plant could become Georgia’s first new coal-fired power plant in more than a quarter century.

The new version of Plant Washington’s air permit sets a tighter limit for fine particle pollution, which can cause heart and lung problems when breathed deep into the lungs. The state’s amended proposal would allow the release of only about a third of the fine particle pollution Georgia had originally planned to allow from the plant, said Eric Cornwell, a permitting manager for the Environmental Protection Division.

Reducing this type of air pollution is also intended to reduce emissions of hazardous metals (other than mercury), since these generally take the form of small particles, he said.

The new permit also changed the method for limiting organic hazardous air pollutants.

Both these changes, Cornwell said, are modeled on proposed new federal rules that are expected to be finalized in November.

The revisions deal only with portions of the air permit that an administrative law judge ordered EPD to study further.

Dean Alford of Power for Georgians, the conglomerate of electric cooperatives planning to build Plant Washington, said the tougher fine particle standard “is without a doubt a great challenge, but it’s a standard the federal government has given, and we recognize we have to meet those guidelines.”

Greenlaw, the environmental law that appealed the permit, generally approves of the tougher limits on fine particles in the new permit proposal, senior attorney Kurt Ebersbach said. But he said the EPD should have also used the upcoming tougher federal regulations as a model for other parts of the air permit, too.

Technical Colleges Merge To Reduce Costs

Sandersville Technical College and Heart of Georgia Technical College in Dublin officially became Oconee Fall Line Technical College on Friday. The merger is part of a statewide plan to reduce costs in the Technical College System of Georgia. The two campuses will continue to function as usual. No buildings will close, but the administration has been consolidated to cut spending. (Photo Courtesy of Oconee Fall Line Technical College.

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