NIPSCO wants to undertake $399 million in environmental protection projects at power plants to comply with new federal mandates designed to prevent groundwater and other pollution from coal ash.
A lot of the work would be undertaken at NIPSCO's Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, where the utility has transported coal ash from other power plants for more than a decade, according to NIPSCO spokesman Nick Meyer. That plant also uses a "wet scrub" technology for filtering coal ash that will need extensive modifications in order to comply with new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules.
One of those rules seeks to limit wastewater discharges of toxic metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury that are present in coal ash, a waste product produced at coal-fired power plants. Other work would be done to comply with a rule that deals with coal ash storage on site at the generating stations.
Bailly Generating Station in Chesterton is slated to close in 2018 under NIPSCO's current long-range plan, so that plant would be dealt with under a separate closure plan, Meyer said. Michigan City Generating Station would have some work done under NIPSCO's request submitted last week.
The Bailly closure, and the planned 2023 shutdown of two generating units at Schahfer, are in part driven by the new EPA rules on coal ash, Meyer said. Other utilities across the state and nation are also coming up with plans to comply with the new rules. The rules may accelerate the trend toward coal-plant retirements and the use of other fuels, such as natural gas, to generate electricity.
NIPSCO's request for $399 million in environmental protection projects and the bill surcharge to pay for them will be the subject of an Indiana Utility Regulatory Process, including a hearing before the commission.
The environmental bill surcharge, or "tracker," NIPSCO wants to use to pay for the projects has been a fairly constant feature of NIPSCO bills for the past decade, ebbing and flowing with the scale of projects undertaken.
NIPSCO has not yet estimated what the surcharge would be for the projects undertaken to comply with the coal ash rules, Meyer said. The surcharge should come onto bills as ones for previous projects are rolling off.
Currently, NIPSCO customers are paying for about $800 million in environmental projects undertaken at power plans via a surcharge that adds about $4.58 to the monthly bill for a typical residential customer using 700 kilowatts of electricity.
The Citizens Action Coalition, the state's largest grass-roots consumer group, has already asked to intervene in the case. The coalition points out the projects will impact customer bills as well as the utility's future choices when it come to alternative energy sources.
Concern about coal ash has been heightened in recent years by high-profile spills at coal-ash storage ponds at power plants, starting with a Dec. 22, 2008 spill at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Kingston, Tennessee. That spill flooded more than 300 acres of land and polluted two nearby rivers.
Locally, one has to look no further than The Pines, just west of Michigan City, to see the problems coal ash can cause. NIPSCO is digging up soil around 13 homes and a park in The Pines, west of Michigan City, which was contaminated with toxic metals from coal ash generated by the utility. The coal ash was dumped there years ago by contractors and used mainly as landscaping fill.