Armstrong Power Station

Armstrong Power Station is a power station owned and operated by Allegheny Energy Supply Company, a subsidiary of the investor-owned electricity utility Allegheny Energy.

The power station has an installed capacity of 356 megawatts and is located in Kittanning, Pennsylvania.

On January 26, 2012, FirstEnergy said it is permanently closing six of its coal plants by September 1, 2012: Bay Shore Plant, Units 2-4, in Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Power Plant in Eastlake, Ohio; Ashtabula Plant in Ashtabula, Ohio; Lake Shore Plant in Cleveland, Ohio; Armstrong Power Station in Adrian, Pennsylvania; and the R. Paul Smith Power Station in Williamsport, Maryland. The plants had served mostly as peaking or intermediate facilities.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Allegheny Energy Supply Company
 * Parent Company: Allegheny Energy
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 326 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 163 MW (1958), 163 MW (1959)
 * Location: Road 1 State Rte. 4006, Kittanning, PA 16201
 * GPS Coordinates: 40.928611, -79.464722
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 2,195,757 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions:
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions:
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions:

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

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Pennsylvania and coal
 * Allegheny Energy
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming