Chesterfield Power Station

Chesterfield Power Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Dominion near Chester, Virginia.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Virginia Power
 * Parent Company: Dominion
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1,354 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 113 MW (1952), 188 MW (1960), 359 MW (1964), 694 MW (1969)
 * Location: 500 Coxendale Rd., Chester, VA 23836
 * GPS Coordinates: 37.381944, -77.381944
 * Coal Consumption: 8,400 tons/day
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees: +/- 200

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 7,766,728 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 64,863 tons
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 8,891 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 360 pounds

==Toxic Waste Data ==
 * Arsenic Waste: 45,100 pounds
 * Air Release: 900 pounds
 * Water Release (James River): 2,200 pounds
 * Land Release (Surface Impoundment: 42,000 pounds
 * Chromium Waste: 75,440 pounds
 * Air Release: 890 pounds
 * Water Release (James River): 550 pounds
 * Land Release (Surface Impoundment): 74,000 pounds
 * Dioxin Waste: .57 grams
 * Air Release: .57 grams
 * Lead Waste: 41,150 pounds
 * Air Release: 840 pounds
 * Water Release (James River): 310 pounds
 * Land Release (Surface Impoundment): 40,000 pounds
 * Mercury Waste: 590 pounds
 * Air Release: 330 pounds
 * Land Release (Surface Impoundment): 260 pounds
 * Nickel Waste: 75,770 pounds
 * Air Release: 1,300 pounds
 * Water Release (James River): 470 pounds
 * Land Release (Surface Impoundment): 74,000

Coal Waste Sites

 * Chesterfield Power Station Lower (Old) Ash Pond
 * Chesterfield Power Station Upper (New) Ash Pond

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

Chesterfield ranked 36th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste
In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill. The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.

Chesterfield Power Station ranked number 36 on the list, with 1,088,260 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

EPA finds coal dam unsafe
Chesterfield Power Station is a 47-year-old unlined dam containing 44 acres of coal sludge. A 2010 inspection by an EPA contractor, "Dam Safety Assessment of CCW Impoundments: Chesterfield Power Station" revealed that the dam’s slope stability did not meet accepted criteria, and the dam “needs improvement to increase the factor of safety.” Records examined by the EPA’s inspector indicate that no regular inspections of the dam were done by the owner or state regulators from 1987 to 2009, despite the fact that plant engineers discovered and repaired a similar slope stability problem in 1987.

Accidents and Negligence

 * January 16, 2006
 * A transformer blew and erupted into flames and escalated into a dangerous fire. No injuries seem to have been reported.

Litigation and Controversy

 * November 17, 2000
 * Facing a lawsuit by Northeastern states against Virginia Power and 8 other utilities companies that claim their air quality problems stem from coal fired power plants in the Southest and Ohio River Valley, Virginia Power agreed to install environmental protection equipment on 8 of its plants.
 * April 28, 2003
 * Virginia Power reached an agreement with the EPA, DOJ, and five states including New York to reduce NOx and SO2 levels by 2013.
 * Virginia Power received a notification in 2000 that they had made major modifications to their plants including Chesterfield without installing equipment that controls for emissions and pollution.
 * May 7, 2008 A flue-gas desulfurization system (called a "scrubber")was installed on the 693-megawatt Unit 6 in partial compliance with the 2003 agreement.
 * July 1, 2011 Dominion Virginia Power started up a $175 million scrubber on its 344-megawatt Unit 5. By year end the new scrubber system will also serve the 110-megawatt Unit 3 and 181-megawatt Unit 4. Expected emission reductions include 95 percent of sulfur dioxide, 80 percent of hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, and 80 percent of mercury. (Units 1 and 2 are fueled by natural gas.)

Citizen groups

 * Appalachian Voices
 * Blue Ridge Earth First
 * Concerned Citizens of Giles County
 * Do Something Charlottesville
 * Chesapeake Climate Action Virginia
 * Mountain Justice Blacksburg
 * Sierra Club Virginia Chapter
 * Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
 * Virginia Tech Beyond Coal
 * Wise Energy for Virginia

Related SourceWatch Articles

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