Extra chunks of goo in my nose lately so just for fun I wade through the obfuscation over at the Texas Commission on So-Called Environmental Quality to find the database of air pollution permit violations. I select “Fort Bend County” and search for all violations over the last approximate month, Jan. 15 through Feb. 15.
Huh. What a surprise:
→ Jan. 16 – WA PARISH ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION
→ Jan. 19 – DUKE ENERGY FIELD SERVICES PIPELINE
→ Jan. 24 – WA PARISH ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION
→ Jan. 25 – WA PARISH ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION
→ Feb. 7 – WA PARISH ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION
→ Feb. 8 – WA PARISH ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION
WA PARISH ELECTRIC GENERATING STATION, which looks like this and operates some 14 miles from my back yard, happens to be the 10th-largest single source of mercury air pollution in the United States.
The fact my family experiences runny noses and symptoms of upper respiratory unease in approximate synchronization to this plant’s air pollution equipment malfunctions probably is sheerest coincidence, don’t you ‘spec?
Owned by NRG of New Jersey, the Parish plant is off to a bang-up start this year, violating its pollution permit on an average of almost one day out of every five, or so it would seem. How much “extra” mercury, I wonder, wafts through the air during what the TC So-Called EQ quaintly refers to as an “air emission event?”
Can’t find out. TC So-Called EQ officials allow plant officials to identify all stuff going up and out of its stacks as generic “opacity.” The Parish permit says it is OK to emit 10% opacity – meaning generic particles plus mercury plus whatever in sufficient quantity to block the view of the blue sky by 10%. Kind of like wearing dirty sun glasses.
During this year’s permit violations, mostly Unit 6 but sometimes Unit 5 puffed crap into the sky determined at opacities above 70% on two occasion and 90% on another. Kind of like breathing in crap while wearing seven or eight pairs of dirty sunglasses on top of each other.
But only right there at the plant. Probably the extra-strength mercury and all was greatly diluted by the time it blew past Richmond. Or more likely, Sugar Land, Missouri City and Houston, since the winds more commonly blow from out of the west.
As an aside, four of the five permit violations by Parish came as the result of “ongoing Baghouse control logic system” failures that keep opening one of the unit’s Baghouse bypass dampers. The baghouse is basically a giant bag that acts as a filter to keep particles from being released into the atmosphere. When it works.
Bottom line? Look for 2010 to be a big year for Kimberly-Clark stock (you know, the makers of Kleenex). That’s it for today’s snot report.
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It’s a shame that members of the commission are named to represent the welfare of the citizens of our state with no particular mention of corporations. It seems if the corporations make a contribution to the party in power then they –not the citizens– are the ones who get represented. This is unfortunately not against the law, although it should be, but certainly a violation of intent and trust.