[Archived] City of Alexandria Intervenes in Clean Air Act Case Pending Against Mirant Power Plant

City Press Release


	For Immediate Release	For More Information, Contact
	May 13, 2005 PIO#	Raynard Owens, Communications Officer, at 703.838.4300 Raynard Owens, Communications Officer, at 703.838.4300

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For More Information, Contact:
May 13, 2005 Barbara J. Gordon, Public Information Officer, or
PIO 149-05 Raynard Owens, Communications Officer, at 703.838.4300

City of Alexandria Intervenes in Clean Air Act Case
Pending Against Mirant Power Plant

The Alexandria City Council has authorized the City to intervene in the Clean Air Act case pending against the Mirant power plant in U.S. District Court, in order to protect the interests of the City and its residents. In a motion to intervene filed on May 11, the City formally joins the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) , Maryland and Virginia in charging Mirant with Clean Air Act violations at the Potomac River Generating Station, located in Old Town Alexandria. “Intervention will allow the City the opportunity to advocate on behalf of City residents, as proceedings in this case unfold,” said Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille..

The United States EPA and Maryland instituted a Clean Air Act enforcement case in the U. S. District Court in Alexandria, against Mirant as owner and operator of the Potomac River Generating Station. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality intervened in the suit as an additional plaintiff. This suit was intended to serve as the vehicle for court approval of a proposed Consent Decree, negotiated among the three government agencies and Mirant, which purported to impose conditions on a “system” of Mirant-operated plants (Potomac River in Alexandria, and Dickerson, Morgantown and Chalk Point in Maryland). The premise of this Consent Decree was that Mirant would be required to establish “system-wide” emissions limits, in exchange for a relaxation of limits at the Potomac River plant, and that the system-wide reduction would benefit the region as well as the City.

To date, the City has utilized the required public notice and opportunity to comment process to file comments with the regulatory agencies that demonstrate that the benefits of the proposed Consent Decree are insufficient adequately to protect the interests of the City’s residents, and that, in some respects, the City will be worse off in the event the Decree is approved.

According to Euille, “It now appears that Mirant leases and operates, but does not own, two of the plants in its so-called system – Dickerson and Morgantown – and failed to disclose the correct facts to the three government agencies in a timely fashion while the Consent Decree was being negotiated.”
After the proposed Consent Decree was made public, the owners of the two plants – known as the MirMa (Mirant Mid-Atlantic) Landlords – objected to the proposed Consent Decree, and have sought to intervene in the Alexandria federal court case. The MirMa Landlords oppose approval of the Decree, and argue that Mirant is seeking to gain the advantage of relaxed emission standards at the clearly non-compliant Potomac River plant, which Mirant owns, while burdening the MirMa Landlords’ fully compliant plants with new requirements which are costly, and which will potentially diminish the plants' operational capacity during peak generating times, Euille said at the same time the it was negotiating the proposed Consent Decree, Mirant was seeking, in its Bankruptcy Court case in Texas, the authority to terminate the leases under which it operates the two plants.

The federal court has not acted on the MirMa Landlords' request to intervene, and Mirant and the three government agencies are attempting to re-negotiate the terms of the Consent Decree. The parties have stated that the revisions will be so substantial as to trigger the requirement for a new public notice and opportunity to comment. Thus far, the City has not been given an explanation as to whether there will be a new agreement, what such an agreement might include, or what action the government agencies might take in the event no new agreement with Mirant can be reached. The City also understands that the MirMa Landlords have not been included in the negotiations. Thus, it is likely that the revised agreement will either not affect the landlords’ interests, thereby diminishing any purported regional or local Alexandria benefit, or that the Landlords will continue to press in court their objection to any proposed Consent Decree.

Given these developments, the Alexandria City Council has authorized the City to intervene in the Clean Air Act case pending in Alexandria federal court, in order to protect the interests of the City and its residents.