Bremo Bluff Power Station

Bremo Bluff Power Station is the oldest coal-fired power station owned and operated by Dominion. Located near Bremo Bluff, Virginia, the station's first two generating units went into service in 1931 and had a total capacity of 30,000 kilowatts. After operating longer than their projected lifetimes, those units were removed from service in 1972.

The third and fourth Bremo units went into service in 1950 and 1958 respectively. Unit 3, the smaller of the two, has a capacity of 80,000 kilowatts. Unit 4 has a capacity of 170,000 kilowatts. The fly ash, together with ash from the bottom of the boilers, is loaded on trucks and hauled to a disposal site near the station where it is disposed.

The ash disposal areas are Bremo Bluff Power Station North Ash and Bremo Bluff Power Station West Ash surface impoundments.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Dominion Virginia Power
 * Parent Company: Dominion
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 250 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 80 MW (1950), 170 MW (1958)
 * Location: 1038 Bremo Rd., Bremo Bluff, VA 23022
 * GPS Coordinates: 37.705278, -78.289444
 * Coal Consumption: 657,974 tons/year (2007)
 * CCW produced: 85,000 tons/year (2007)
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees: +/-75

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 1,534,214 tons
 * 2002 CO Emissions: 169 tons
 * 2002 NH3: 10.2
 * 2002 NOx Emissions: 4,720 tons
 * 2002 PM10 Emissions: 636 tons
 * 2002 PM2.5 Emisions: 596 tons
 * 2002 SO2 Emissions: 13,457 tons
 * 2002 VOC Emissions: 20.2 tons


 * 2005 Fly Ash Disposed in Surface Impoundments: 68,000 tons
 * 2005 Botton Ash Disposed in Surface Impoundments: 17,000 tons

Source: http://camddataandmaps.epa.gov/gdm/index.cfm?fuseaction=emissions.wizard

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Bremo Bluff Station
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Bremo Bluff Station
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

EPA inspection of coal dams
A 2010 EPA assessment of the West Ash Pond and the North Ash Pond management units at the Bremo Power Station recommended inboard slopes, outboard slopes, drainage ditches, and an emergency spillway, among other measures, to improve the safety of the dams.

Citizen groups

 * Citizens for Alternatives to Longview Power
 * Coal River Mountain Watch
 * Greenbrier River Watershed Association
 * Keeper of the Mountains Foundation
 * Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
 * Sierra Club West Virginia Chapter
 * West Virginia Environmental Council
 * West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
 * West Virginia Rivers Coalition

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Virginia and coal
 * Dominion
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming