[Archived] City of Alexandria Unites with Citizens and Environmental Groups In Opposition to Mirant

City Press Release


	For Immediate Release	For More Information, Contact
	November 18, 2005 PIO# 334-05/rdo	Steven J. Mason, Public Information Officer, or Raynard Owens, Communications Officer, at 703.838.4300 Raynard Owens, Communications Officer, at 703.838.4300

City of Alexandria Unites with Citizens and Environmental Groups
In Opposition to Mirant
Growing Risks to the Public’s Health and the Environment
Impel Call for Permanent Closure of Coal Plant

Mayor William Euille and the Alexandria City Council joined today with local citizens and environmental leaders in calling for the immediate and permanent closure of the Mirant power plant.

Located in residential Alexandria, the Mirant coal plant processes more than one million tons of coal every year. Through the unloading and burning of the equivalent of 10,000 railroad cars of coal, Mirant emits excessive levels of harmful substances, including coal dust, flyash, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and mercury.

“Mirant has operated with callous indifference to the health of Alexandria’s families,” said Mayor Euille. “This outmoded coal plant is a hazard to the environment and to all who live, work or visit here.”

Recent independent air quality studies have added a sense of urgency to the City’s efforts to close the plant. These studies highlight widespread violations of pollution standards by the power plant. The Mirant plant has been listed a high priority violator by both Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“The noxious emissions from Mirant’s plant are a constant and ever-present danger to the public health,” said Cale Jaffe, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The Mirant facility is literally pumping pollutants directly into people’s homes.”

Air quality analyses also demonstrate that Mirant emits particulate matter so small as to be undetected by the human eye. “This invisible threat is of particular concern for the elderly, the chronically ill and children,” said Mayor Euille.

“Fine particles such as those emitted by Mirant find their way deep into human lungs, causing chronic inflammation,” said Diana Artemis of the Mount Vernon Group of the Sierra Club. “These invisible particles are even more harmful when combined with the plant’s excessive emissions of nitrogen oxides.”

The Mirant coal plant started operating twenty years before the first modern clean air laws were enacted. “There is no place in Alexandria’s future for an industrial dinosaur spewing coal dust into our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Euille. “Alexandria is a great place to live, work, shop and recreate – and it will be even better when this plant permanently closes its doors.”

The Mayor, environmental groups and concerned citizens are united on the following concerns:

2. Sulfur dioxide is a major contributor to respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses. Currently available technology will not allow the plant’s sulfur dioxide emissions to meet the pollution standards and will only increase emissions of harmful fine particles.
4. Mercury is a neurotoxin that harms the development of the human brain, both for fetuses and young children.
6. Mirant itself described the Potomac plant as “functionally obsolete.” The region can develop a sensible, reliable power plan without Mirant.
8. Mirant is a poor corporate citizen. Its bankruptcy proceedings and attempted manipulation of the regional power market should be fully investigated.
10. Mirant is more focused on recovering from its partnership with Enron and resulting bankruptcy than the health of our community.
12. Mirant spends thousands of dollars on slick public relations campaigns, while we pay for the damages it causes to our health and the environment.
Along with the community-wide action launched today, on Oct. 7 the City of Alexandria filed a nuisance suit against Mirant, requesting that the Circuit Court require the company to “abate, raze or remove the public and private nuisance it has created.”

The following organizations have joined the City in calling for the immediate and permanent closure of the Mirant power plant:

Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Potomac Riverkeeper
Sierra Club, Mount Vernon Group
Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter
Southern Environmental Law Center
Virginia League of Conservation Voters

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