Gibson Generating Station

Gibson Generating Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Duke Energy near Princeton, Indiana, just opposite the Wabash River from Mount Carmel, Illinois.

Plant Data

 * Owner: PSI Energy Inc.
 * Parent Company: Duke Energy
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 3,340 MW
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 668 MW (1975), 668 MW (1976), 668 MW (1978), 668 MW (1979), 668 MW (1982)
 * Location: SR 64 W & CR 975, Princeton, IN 47670
 * GPS Coordinates: 38.3725, -87.76611
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * 2006 CO2 Emissions: 21,447,980 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions: 155,057 tons
 * 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * 2006 NOx Emissions: 28,533 tons
 * 2005 Mercury Emissions: 577 lb.

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

Coal Waste Sites

 * Gibson Generating Station East Ash Pond Number 1
 * Gibson Generating Station East Ash Pond Number 2
 * Gibson Generating Station East Ash Pond Number 3
 * Gibson Generating Station East Ash Pond Settling Basin
 * Gibson Generating Station North Ash Pond
 * Gibson Generating Station North Settling Basin

Gibson ranked 6th 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.

Gibson Generating Station ranked number 6 on the list, with 3,030,524 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.

Gibson ranked 4th in terms of largest carbon dioxide emissions
According to a 2009 report by Environment America, "America's Biggest Polluters," the Gibson station is the fourth dirtiest plant in the nation, releasing 22.4 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2007. Ranking is based upon Environmental Protection Agency data.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Indiana and coal
 * Duke Energy
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming