Pennsylvania's Greene County is among the most polluted counties in the nation, yet federal and state agencies have failed to enforce key environmental laws to protect its residents, claims a report released Wednesday by environmental groups. Much of the pollution comes from coal fired power plants, and the state government showed it is listening to environmental concerns by enacting a clean energy portfolio last week.

The report, "Pollution Unchecked," by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and two local groups, found that state and federal agencies do not adequately monitor pollution in the county or collect data documenting its impact on public health.

The pollution sources in this rural county in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania include what the groups call "two of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the country," Hatfield's Ferry Power Station in Monongahela Township and Fort Martin Power Station in Maidsville, West Virginia.

A Greenpeace activist climbs the Hatfield's Ferry Power Station emissions stack June 23, 2004. Six activists including this climber were charged with state and federal crimes. (Photo © Greenpeace/Virginia Lee Hunter)

In 2002, Hatfield's Ferry and Fort Martin released 4,110 pounds of arsenic, 277 pounds of beryllium, 69 million pounds of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and nearly 500 million pounds of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the air, the groups report.

Arsenic and beryllium increase the risk of lung cancer; NOx contributes to the formation of ground-level ozone or smog, which irritates lungs; and SO2 causes lung disease, aggravates asthma, and contributes to heart disease.

Both power plants are sources of particulate matter, or soot, which is associated with asthma, chronic bronchitis, decreased lung function, and premature death.

The two power plants have a history of Clean Air Act violations, the county currently exceeds federal standards for ozone pollution, and state officials have proposed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designate Greene County an unhealthful area due to high particulate matter pollution levels.

"Greene County is a real world example of the harmful consequences of government inaction," said Erik Olson, an NRDC senior attorney and coauthor of the report. "Residents there are exposed to air and water pollutants that can cause cancer, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases, nervous system damage, birth defects and even premature death - mostly from mines and power plants that the Bush administration and Pennsylvania officials refuse to clean up."

Pennsylvania is a state rich in coal. Nearly 60 percent of electricity in Pennsylvania is generated in coal fired power plants, while about 35 percent comes from nuclear power plants.

Devra Davis, director of the Center of Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh and author of the book "When Smoke Runs Like Water," likened the problems documented in the NRDC report to her experience growing up in Donora, a polluted Pennsylvania town.

"The levels of arsenic and other toxic emissions in Greene County are among the highest in the country," she said. "Other regions with such pollution have elevated rates of cancer. By the time evidence of human harm can be demonstrated, however, it is far too late for those whose health has been damaged."

The Monongahela River in southwestern Pennsylvania, showing a coal fired power plant at Elizabeth (Photo courtesy Independent Elders Survey)

As a result, groundwater and often the Monogahela, which serves as county's principal source of drinking water, are polluted with arsenic, boron, manganese, molybdenum and other contaminants, the report states.

Active and abandoned coal mines in the area pollute local waters with such toxic pollutants as arsenic, which causes cancer.

Despite the health risks posed by this pollution, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has repeatedly waived requirements that public water systems in the state, including Greene County, regularly test drinking water for arsenic and other inorganic contaminants. Instead, the groups report, most are now required to test for these dangerous contaminants only once every nine years, virtually guaranteeing that most problems will go undetected.

NRDC contends this is a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Meanwhile, the state monitors air pollution in the county at only one site and collects data for only three pollutants.

"This report highlights a host of problems that need to be brought to the agencies' and the public's attention," said Andrew McElwaine, president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, one of the organizations that sponsored the report. "We hope that state and federal regulatory agencies take the opportunity to address these critical public health concerns.

The state government did take action last week to supply Pennsylvania residents with cleaner energy.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, a Democrat, signed into law a two-tiered clean energy portfolio standard, ensuring that in 15 years, 18 percent of all of the energy generated in the Commonwealth comes from clean, efficient sources.

The governor first unveiled a proposal for a portfolio standard in his February 3 budget address and signed the measure on December 3.

The portfolio standard uses two tiers to ensure the state’s energy needs are met by advanced and renewable resources.

Tier I requires eight percent of electricity sold at retail in the state to come from traditional renewables sources such as solar photovoltaic energy, wind power, low impact hydropower, geothermal energy, biologically derived methane gas, fuel cells, biomass energy or coal mine methane. At least 0.5 percent of the Tier I electricity must come from solar photovoltaics.

Tier II requires 10 percent of the electricity to be generated from waste coal, distributed generation systems, demand side management, large scale hydropower, municipal solid waste, generation from pulping and wood manufacturing byproducts, and integrated combined coal gasification technology.

"With a clean energy portfolio standard, Pennsylvania has a unique opportunity to attract new investment in energy technology that will stimulate our economy, improve electric system reliability, cut energy costs, enhance national security and help to restore the state’s environment by ensuring more electricity generation comes from environmentally beneficial resources," Rendell said.

Two of eight wind power turbines at the 10.4 megawatt Green Mountain Wind Farm located near Garrett, Pennsylvania (Photo courtesy Green Mountain Energy Company)

"Pennsylvania surface water and rural communities will enjoy additional benefits from the continued remediation of waste coal deposits around the state, thus eliminating detrimental acid discharges to our waterways and restoring the land they occupied," said Rendell.

A clean energy portfolio standard creates incentives for the use of energy resources indigenous to Pennsylvania, reducing the state’s reliance on future energy imports and mitigating against price spikes brought on by geopolitical uncertainty.

Pennsylvania spends as much as $30 billion per year - more than the state’s entire $23 billion General Fund budget - to import energy fuels. Indigenous energy development has a multiplier effect in local and regional economies that can yield greater economic benefits than the value derived from imported oil.

A recently published study by the global engineering firm Black and Veatch Corp. Inc., which analyzed the economic benefits of a clean energy portfolio standard, found significant economic benefits over and above pursuing business as usual with only traditional fuel sources.

The benefits include a $140 million reduction in electricity prices for residential, commercial and industrial consumers, $10 billion in increased output for our state, $3 billion in additional earnings and more than 4,000 new jobs for state residents over the next 20 years.

View the Greene County report online at: http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/greene/contents.asp