Canadys Station

Canadys Station is a 490 megawatts (MW) coal-fired power station near Canadys, South Carolina which is owned and operated by South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), the principal subsidiary of SCANA.

The station will be retired by the end of 2013.

Plant Data

 * Owner: South Carolina Electric & Gas Company
 * Parent Company: SCANA
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 490MW
 * Plant output:420 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 136 MW (1962), 136 MW (1964), 218 MW (1967)
 * Location: Canadys Station Highway 61, Canadys, SC 29433
 * GPS Coordinates: 33.06456, -80.623497
 * Coal Consumption:"approximately 130 tons of coal per hour when operating at full load";
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 2,639,835 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 22,984 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 4,998 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 79 lb.

Retirement and fuel conversion plans
On May 30, 2012, SCE&G announced plans to retire up to six coal-fired generating units at three locations by the end of 2018. The units range in age from 45 to 57 years and are the utility's oldest and smallest coal-fired units.

Plans included retirement of Unit 1 at the Canadys Station by the end of 2012, and retirement of the remaining two units (Units 2 and 3) by the end of 2017, after an interim conversion to natural gas.

In June 2013 SCE&G said it had re-evaluated its plans and decided to close Units 2 and 3 by the end of December 2013.

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

Canadys ranked 78th 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.

Canadys Station ranked number 78 on the list, with 357,897 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Canadys cited as contaminated by coal ash in 2007 EPA report
A 2007 assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that at least 23 states already have poisoned surface or groundwater supplies from improper disposal of coal ash, including Texas, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Sites in the South that EPA identified as having suffered proven damages from coal ash contamination include the Canadys Station, as well as Virginia Electric & Power (now Dominion Resources) plant in Possum Point, Va.; the Virginia Power (now Dominion) Yorktown Power Station Chisman Creek disposal site in York County, Va.; Southern Co.'s Plant Bowen in Cartersville, Ga.; the U.S. Department of Energy's Chestnut Ridge plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; DOE's Savannah River Project in South Carolina; the Brandy Branch Reservoir near the Southwestern Electric Power (AEP) Pirkey power plant; Southwestern/AEP's Welsh Reservoir in Texas; and Texas Utilities' (now TXU's) Martin Lake Reservoir.

On its website, CSE&G state that in 2007 "a dry ash silo was installed on unit 3. This system was installed to collect fly ash and for recycling ash to be used in the production of cement."

Citizens express concern over proposed coal ash site for plant
In January 2011, Colleton County residents voiced concerns over plans by SCE&G to put a coal ash landfill between Sidneys and Pleasant Grove Road. The 1,000-acre landfill would be used for coal ash and other coal waste leftovers from the utility's Canadys plant. A meeting is planned for Jan. 27, 2011, to discuss whether local officials should approve the landfill. The Sierra Club of South Carolina, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and homeowners are organizing meetings about the proposed landfill.

On Feb. 24, 2011, Colleton County rejected the request by South Carolina Electric and Gas to build a coal ash landfill in the county, with the county zoning board of appeals deadlocked 2-2 on the issue. A majority was needed so the utility could build the landfill. SCE&G wanted a zoning exception to create a 15-story-tall landfill of coal ash residue near the village of Canadys.

Citizen groups

 * Coastal Conservation League
 * Conservation Voters of South Carolina
 * Sierra Club South Carolina Chapter
 * South Carolina Wildlife Federation

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * South Carolina and coal
 * SCANA
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming
 * Coal