Naughton Power Plant

Naughton Power Plant is a coal-fired power station owned by PacifiCorp of MidAmerican Energy (part of Berkshire Hathaway) near Kemmerer, Wyoming.

In its April 2012 filing, PacifiCorp announced its intention to stop burning coal at Naughton Power Plant unit 3. PacifiCorp is debating converting the plant to natural gas, primarily to serve summer peak load in Utah and Wyoming.

Plant Data

 * Owner: PacifiCorp
 * Parent Company: MidAmerican Energy (owned by Berkshire Hathaway)
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 707 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 163 MW (1963), 218 MW (1968), 326 MW (1971)
 * Location: 1025 Sublette Dr., Kemmerer, WY 83101
 * GPS Coordinates: 41.757232, -110.597654
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 5,855,902 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 20,664 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 14,168 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 30 lb.

Coal ash at Naughton
According to a 2007 risk assessment report released by the EPA, Wyoming has 17 coal ponds at 5 coal-fired power plant sites. Of these ponds, 11 are over 30 years in age and 4 are over 40 years old. Additionally, four surface impoundments and landfills were reported as being unlined, and two that were clay-lined.

The history of coal ash releases in Wyoming are as follow:


 * 55,000 cubic yards of fly ash spilled from a pond at the Naughton Power Plant
 * In January 2009, 14,400 gallons of coal ash processing water overflowed the canal at a coal ash pond at the Dave Johnston Power Plant
 * Seepage occurred at the Bridger Power Station, where 10,000 gallons of coal ash was released per month, which was then pumped back into the pond

Naughton ranked 58th 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.

Naughton Power Plant ranked number 58 on the list, with 517,966 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Citizen groups

 * Powder River Basin Resource Council
 * Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter
 * Wyoming Conservation Voters
 * Wyoming Conservation Voters Education Fund
 * Wyoming Outdoor Council

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Wyoming and coal
 * PacifiCorp
 * MidAmerican Energy
 * Berkshire Hathaway
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming