Kraft Plant

Kraft Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Southern Company near Port Wentworth, Georgia.

Kraft units 1 - 4 are slated for retirement in 2016.

Proposed retirement
On January 7, 2013, Georgia Power said it plans to seek approval from Georgia regulators to retire 15 coal-, oil- and natural gas-fired power plants in the state, totaling 2,061 megawatts (MW). The coal plants would include units 1-3 at Kraft Plant (unit 4 is gas-fired and also slated for retirement). The company said it expects to ask to retire the units, other than Kraft 1-4, by the April 16, 2015, effective date of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Mercury and Air Toxics (MATS) rule. The company said it expects to seek a one-year extension of the MATS compliance date for Plant Kraft and retire those units by April 16, 2016.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Savannah Electric & Power Company
 * Parent Company: Southern Company
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 208 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 50 MW (1958), 54 MW (1961), 104 MW (1965)
 * Location: Crossgate Rd. and Savannah River, Port Wentworth, GA 31407
 * GPS Coordinates: 32.148609, -81.145836
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Sources (2009)
 * Mill Branch Mine (Kentucky)

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 1,653,099 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions:
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions:
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions:

Coal Waste Site

 * Kraft Plant Ash Pond

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

EPA Violations
According to New York Times compilation of 2009 EPA data the plant has violated the Clean Water Act 212 times without paying any fines.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Georgia and coal
 * Southern Company
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming