Coal Creek Station

Coal Creek Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Great River Energy near Underwood, North Dakota.

Plant Data

 * Owner/Parent Company: Great River Energy
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 1,210 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 605 MW (1979), 605 MW (1980)
 * Location: 2875 3rd St. SW, Underwood, ND 58576
 * GPS Coordinates: 47.376749, -101.14518
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 11,094,477 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 32,084 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 24,428 tons
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 12,489 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 859 pounds

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. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma-related episodes and asthma-related emergency room visits, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, peneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution is formed from a combination of soot, acid droplets, and metals formed from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and soot. Among those particles, the most dangerous are the smallest (smaller than 2.5 microns), 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. 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. The table below estimates the death and illness attributable to Coal Creek Station. 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 the Coal Creek Station Plant
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

==Toxic Waste Data ==
 * 2006 Arsenic Waste: 46,300 pounds
 * Air Release: 875 pounds
 * Land Release (Landfill/Sludge/Reuse): 45,425 pounds
 * 2006 Chromium Waste: 48,117 pounds
 * Air Release: 491 pounds
 * Land Release (Landfill/Sludge/Reuse): 47,626 pounds
 * Lead Waste: 33,709 pounds
 * Air Release: 490.6 pounds
 * Land Release (Landfill/Sludge/Reuse): 33,218.4
 * Nickel Waste: 42,744 pounds
 * Air Release: 403 pounds
 * Land Release (Landfill/Sludge/Reuse): 42,301

Coal Creek ranked 3rd 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.

Coal Creek Station ranked number 3 on the list, with 4,372,709 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Coal Creek eighth in 2009 mercury emissions
The 2011 Environmental Defense Fund report, "Mercury Alert: Cleaning up Coal Plants for Healthier Lives" found that 25 plants alone are responsible for nearly a third of all mercury emissions in the power sector, while providing only eight percent of U.S. electricity. The findings are based on 2009 U.S. Department of Energy data. The plant with the eighth highest mercury emissions was Coal Creek Station, releasing 862 lbs in 2009.

Litigation and Controversy

 * September 12, 2005 Data
 * Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station sold over 69,000 tons of fly ash in the month of August alone, a record for fly ash recycling.
 * Coal Creek Station is recognized for reusing a good portion of their fly ash. They produced 440,000 tons in 2004 and sold 400,000.
 * The EPA awarded Great River Energy with a first-place environmental achievement award.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * North Dakota and coal
 * Great River Energy
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming