Environmental groups sue UNC-Chapel Hill over pollution from a coal-fired power plant
Two environmental groups claim in a federal lawsuit that UNC-Chapel Hill is spewing too much air pollution from coal-burning boilers in violation of a federal permit.
The campus burned too much coal in its boilers and failed to maintain logbooks of required inspections, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club said in their lawsuit. Pollution from the power plant can trigger asthma attacks, decrease lung function and even cause early death, the lawsuit said.
UNC-Chapel Hill has a plant with two boilers that burn coal, natural gas, and fuel oil to produce electricity and steam. Former Chancellor Holden Thorpe said in 2010 that the campus would end its use of coal by 2020. The university has applied for a five-year renewal of the air quality permit covering the plant, The News & Observer has reported. The campus set a new goal in 2015 to be “climate neutral” by 2050.
In response to emailed questions, UNC-Chapel Hill forwarded a nine-page letter dated Nov. 15 that Jonathan Pruitt, vice chancellor for finance and operations sent to Perrin de Jong, a North Carolina-based lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Pruitt said the university strongly disagrees with claims of repeat violations.
“There have been a few, isolated instances of record-keeping discrepancies and other minor errors that have been reported as appropriate,” the letter said.
Pruitt’s letter says UNC-Chapel Hill needs the electricity and steam the plant produces to fulfill its teaching, research and public service mission.
The university has cut its coal use in half over the last 20 years, Pruitt wrote, and is making changes that will produce more reductions.
“The University has studied, and continues to research ways to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of coal while continuing to meet the rigorous levels of reliability required to sustain critical operations,” the letter said.
De Jong said the environmental groups obtained “tens of thousands” of pages on plant operations that allowed them to draw conclusions about violations.
The lawsuit calls for the campus to comply with its air quality permit. But de Jong in a telephone interview that the campus should give up coal all together.
“It’s important for public health and protection of the environment,” he said. “Coal is a dirty fuel. We would like to see UNC leave coal behind.”
The campus burned only natural gas in the plant this summer, de Jong said, but started using coal when temperatures dropped.
“They demonstrated they were able to operate without burning dirty fuel,” he said.
The Center for Biological Diversity commissioned a report released last year that concluded that UNC-Chapel Hill’s existing permit allows for nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions that exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards.
An N.C. Division of Air Quality form submitted this year did not find any violations, the N&O reported. The discrepancy may be a result of how the emissions are measured, the N&O reported.
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This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 5:06 PM.