Lansing Smith Generating Plant

Lansing Smith Electric Generating Plant is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Southern Company near Southport, Florida.

Plant Data

 * Owner: Gulf Power
 * Parent Company: Southern Company
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 340 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 150 MW (1965), 190 MW (1967)
 * Location: 4300 Hwy. 2300, Southport, FL 32409
 * GPS Coordinates: 30.268722, -85.700861
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source: Hobet 21 Surface Mine
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 3,865,692 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 14,610 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 6,207 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 76 lb.

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

Coal Waste Site

 * Lansing Smith Generating Plant Ash Pond

Lansing Smith ranked 57th 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.

Lansing Smith Generating Plant ranked number 57 on the list, with 520,282 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Elevated levels of toxic hexavalent chromium found at Lansing Smith
A report released by EarthJustice and the Sierra Club in early February 2011 stated that there are many health threats associated with a toxic cancer-causing chemical found in coal ash waste called hexavalent chromium. The report specifically cited 29 sites in 17 states where the contamination was found. The information was gathered from existing EPA data on coal ash and included locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virgina and Wisconsin. In Florida, the Lansing Smith Generating Plant in Southport was reported as having high levels of chromium seeping into drinking water supplies.

According to EPA data, hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) was reported at the Lansing coal waste sites above 100 ppb (parts per billion) - 5,000 times the proposed California drinking water goals and above the federal drinking water standard.

As a press release about the report read:


 * Hexavalent chromium first made headlines after Erin Brockovich sued Pacific Gas & Electric because of poisoned drinking water from hexavalent chromium. Now new information indicates that the chemical has readily leaked from coal ash sites across the U.S. This is likely the tip of the iceberg because most coal ash dump sites are not adequately monitored.

According to the report, the electric power industry is the leading source of chromium and chromium compounds released into the environment, representing 24 percent of releases by all industries in 2009.

According to the report, the electric power industry is the leading source of chromium and chromium compounds released into the environment, representing 24 percent of releases by all industries in 2009.

Related SourceWatch Articles

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