Neil Simpson Power Plants

Neil Simpson I, Neil Simpson II, and Wygen Unit 3 are three coal-fired power stations owned and operated by Black Hills Corporation near Gillette, Wyoming. The facility sits immediately to the south of PacifiCorp's Wyodak Power Plant and Black Hills Corporation's Wygen Station.

On April 1, 2010 it was announced that the newly constructed Wygen III went officially online, several months earlier than expected. It was the first in the state of Wyoming to do so since 2008. The 100 MW plant will provide coal-fired electricity to approximately 70,000 residents in the states of South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The cost of the plant was $247 million.

Plant Data

 * Owner/Parent Company: Black Hills Corporation
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 101.7 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 21.7 MW (1969), 80.0 MW (1995)
 * Location: 13151 Hwy. 51, Gillette, WY 82718
 * GPS Coordinates: 44.285454, -105.383451
 * Electricity Production: 797,247 MWh (2005)
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * CO2 Emissions: 939,879 tons (2006)
 * SO2 Emissions: 1,792 tons (2002)
 * SO2 Emissions per MWh: 4.50 lb/MWh
 * NOx Emissions: 1,461 tons (2002)
 * Mercury Emissions:

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

Citizen groups

 * Powder River Basin Resource Council
 * Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter
 * Wyoming Conservation Voters
 * Wyoming Conservation Voters Education Fund
 * Wyoming Outdoor Council

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Wyoming and coal
 * Black Hills Corporation
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming