FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Eibenholzl, Environmental Coordinator for Southeast
Minneapolis Neighborhoods (612) 676-1731
Paula Maccabee, Sierra Club Air Toxics Campaign (651) 646-8890
NEIGHBORS, ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS,
MAYOR-ELECT RYBAK AND COUNCILMEMBERS demand XCEL ENERGY CLEAN UP ITS TOXIC AIR EMISSIONS
---------------
Riverside Coal Plant, Hennepin County�s �Biggest Polluter,�
Focus of Nov. 29 Public Meeting
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. November 29, 2001. More than a half dozen neighborhood and environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action Alliance, represetnatives of Mayor-elect R.T. Rybak and Minneapolis City Council Members joined forces today at a public meeting on the air emissions permit for Xcel Energy�s Riverside coal-burning plant to demand clean up of toxic air pollution from the plant. The Riverside plant emits more than 61 million pounds of air pollutants each year.
Permit opponents emphasized that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reviews air permits only once every five years, so the decision on whether or not to grant an air permit for the Riverside plant could affect the health of Minneapolis residents for years to come.
�It�s disgusting that residents have to breathe these pollutants 24/7,� said Justin Eibenholzl, Environmental Coordinator for Southeast Minneapolis neighborhoods. �Dangerous emissions are generated unnecessarily at the Riverside coal plant. There is well-known technology to clean up this plant or burn cleaner fuel. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency should do more for our community than give Xcel Energy a long-term license to poison our neighborhoods. �
Mayor-Elect R. T. Rybak and at least four Minneapolis City Council Members have called for the Riverside coal plant to make substantial changes in the way it operates. In a briefing session before Thursday�s public meeting on the permit, Rybak emphasized, �In the midst of a densely-populated community including vulnerable populations, we must either repower with clean natural gas or use the most modern pollution control equipment. The people of Minneapolis deserve, and expect us to set, high standards to protect our environment and the public health.�
Xcel�s Riverside coal plant has avoided regulation of pollution due to a loophole in the Clean Air Act of 1970 that �grandfathers� in coal plants built before the law went into effect. The Riverside coal plant still burns coal much the same way as it did in the 1950�s with the following consequences:
� The Riverside coal plant emits more toxic emissions than any other facility in Hennepin County.
� Riverside's unit 8 has the highest emissions rate for small particulates (PM10) in the state, among similar coal plants.
� Riverside's boilers are in the State's top three highest emitters of nitrogen oxides, which form dangerous ground level ozone.
� Riverside emits from 80 to 100 pounds of toxic mercury each year.
� Riverside emits from 1100 to 3200 pounds of toxic lead each year.
� Over the past six years, the Riverside coal plant�s emissions of particulates that trigger asthma and lung disease have nearly tripled.
Converting the Riverside plant to burn natural gas would remove the bulk of the pollutants. In an October 5, 2001, letter sent to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency four City Council Members (Joe Biernat, Joan Campbell, Barb Johnson, and Paul Ostrow) called for installation of best available pollution control technology at Riverside or repowering with natural gas to make Riverside �a cleaner member of our community.� Explained the Minneapolis Council Members, �We consider Xcel�s repowering of its Riverside facility to natural gas a desired priority.�
The Sierra Club and Clean Water Action Alliance emphasized that Minnesota coal plants are the single largest source of mercury emissions in the State, releasing more than half a ton of mercury into the air each year, and a source of 62 percent of the toxic lead emitted into Minnesota air. Mercury concentrates in the food chain and causes brain damage, particularly to children who eat fish contaminated with mercury. Lead is also a powerful neurotoxin, and even a tiny amount absorbed by children can reduce intelligence and the potential to learn. Coal-fired power plants also emit nitrogen oxides that form the ground level ozone that resulted in air quality alerts this summer, particulates that cause asthma and lung disease, sulfur dioxide that causes acid rain and millions of pounds of carbon dioxide that contributes to global climate change.
Fran Guminga, resident and member of the Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition summed it up, �I can�t burn leaves, but Xcel can burn coal that pollutes our air and water right in the middle of a densely-populated neighborhood. Our children are suffering from asthma year-round. As the Holiday Season approaches, it isn�t right for Xcel Energy to give the children of Minneapolis a lump of coal in their stockings instead of clean air to breathe.�
For more information, contact Justin Eibenholzl, Environmental Coordinator for Southeast Minneapolis Neighborhoods at (612) 676-1731, Fran Guminga, Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition (612) 781-1191, Peter Wagenius, Rybak Transition Team, (612)339-0623 ext. 1303, Paula Maccabee, Coordinator, Sierra Club Air Toxics Campaign at (651) 646-8890, Diana McKeown, Clean Water Action Alliance (612) 623-3666.
# # #
MEDIA CONTACT: Justin Eibenholzl, Environmental Coordinator for Southeast
Minneapolis Neighborhoods (612) 676-1731
Paula Maccabee, Sierra Club Air Toxics Campaign (651) 646-8890
MEDIA ALERT
DO MINNEAPOLIS CHILDREN DESERVE A LUMP OF COAL
FROM XCEL ENERGY INSTEAD OF CLEAN AIR TO BREATHE?
NEIGHBORS AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS, MAYOR-ELECT RYBAK STAFF AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS DEMAND CLEAN-UP
OF XCEL ENERGY RIVERSIDE COAL PLANT NOV. 29
WHAT: Neighborhood and environmental groups will protest the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency�s proposal to rubber-stamp permits that allow Xcel Energy�s Minneapolis Riverside coal plant to pollute the air. To visually dramatize the health risks of the Xcel coal plant, protesters will collect Holiday stockings filled with coal to present to Xcel Energy at the permit hearing later that evening.
WHEN: Thursday, November 29, 2001, at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church, 1509- 27th Avenue NE in Minneapolis.
WHO: Elected officials, neighborhood residents and leaders, environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action Alliance.
VISUALS: Dozens of neighborhood activists will gather with signs to protest the State�s failure to protect Minneapolis citizens from air-borne poisons at the Riverside coal plant. Stockings with lumps of coal will emphasize, as the Holiday Season approaches, that Minneapolis children deserve clean air to breathe, not a lump of dirty coal.
NOTE: Activists would welcome the opportunity to work with TV crews for a live feed from the site.
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
