News
Judge Rules GenOn Liable for Over 8,500 Environmental Violations at Conemaugh Power Plant
For Immediate Release: March 22, 2011
Contact:
David Masur, PennEnvironment Director (267-303-8292) Josh
Kratka, National Environmental Law Center (617-747-4333)
Judge Rules GenOn Liable for Over 8,500 Environmental Violations at Conemaugh Power Plant
PennEnvironment, Sierra Club applaud
decision;
GenOn’s potential legal exposure is
significant
Pittsburgh, PA –Late yesterday evening, Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania granted a summary judgment decision in support of PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club against GenOn Northeast Management Company for ongoing violations of the federal Clean Water Act at the company’s coal-fired power plant, located on the banks of the Conemaugh River near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. GenOn NMC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GenOn Energy, Inc., a Houston-based company formed by the recent merger of RRI Energy and Mirant Corporation.
The court ruled that GenOn has committed 8,684 violations of the Clean Water Act dating back to 2005 and continuing to the present day. GenOn’s potential legal exposure for these violations is nearly $300 million, based upon the court’s ability to assess penalties of up to $37,500 for each violation.
“It is crucial that penalties for this type of flagrant environmental malfeasance are more than just a slap on the wrist,” stated PennEnvironment Director David Masur. “As we prepare to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act, chronic polluters cannot be allowed to benefit financially from breaking one of our cornerstone environmental laws.”
“GenOn’s long history of failure to comply with its pollution limits suggests that the quality of Pennsylvania's rivers is worth less to the company than the profits it can take back to Houston,” said Thomas Au, water issues chair for the Pennsylvania Sierra Club. “It is a real victory when we can hold a company like this accountable for its actions.”
PennEnvironment and Sierra Club filed a federal lawsuit against GenOn (then known as Reliant Energy) nearly four years ago on April 10, 2007, alleging illegal discharges of potentially toxic metals into the Conemaugh River from the company’s Conemaugh Generating Station, a large coal-fired power plant located in New Florence, Pennsylvania.
“We were able to put a man on the moon more than forty years ago, and companies like GenOn – one of the nation’s largest power producers – have the technological knowhow to comply with environmental standards today. What GenOn has lacked is the will to do so,” said Masur.
The environmental groups alleged that GenOn has been in continuous violation of its Clean Water Act wastewater discharge permit, discharging more than three million gallons of wastewater per day containing elevated levels of selenium, manganese, aluminum, boron, and iron into the Conemaugh River. The limits in GenOn’s permit were set by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) specifically to protect against degraded conditions in the river, and to help restore the river to health.
“One of the greatest attributes of the Clean Water Act is that it allows citizens to take legal action against chronic polluters when state and federal officials are unable—or unwilling—to make sure that these polluters comply with clean water standards,” stated PennEnvironment’s Masur.
Some of the metals at issue come from air pollution control equipment installed by GenOn in the mid-1990s. Thus, selenium and boron, which had previously been spewed into the air by the facility, now pollute the company’s wastewater, which has been dumped into the Conemaugh River without adequate treatment. The DEP has designated the Conemaugh River as an “impaired water body” because of excessive concentrations of many of the metals discharged by the facility.
In ruling GenOn to be liable, the court found that the evidence submitted “clearly indicates that the pollutants at issue cause or can contribute to the kinds of injuries testified to by Plaintiffs,” including potential harms to human health and wildlife from exposure to toxic chemicals. The court also noted that “that the imposition of civil penalties is not only likely to deter GenOn from exceeding its permit levels in the future but will serve to deter others as well.”
In March 2006, PennEnvironment had released a study entitled “Troubled Waters,” which contained data gathered under the Freedom of Information Act showing that GenOn’s Conemaugh Generating Station was regularly violating its clean water permit limits for aluminum, boron, iron, manganese, and selenium, and was also violating its monitoring requirements for mercury.
GenOn’s Pennsylvania facilities have faced ongoing scrutiny and challenges. This includes the threat of legal actions against the company’s so-called “clean coal” Seward power plant for nearly 12,000 Clean Water Act violations, as well as run-ins with the DEP at the company’s Cheswick, Keystone, Elrama, and Brunot Island power plants, all of which are located in Pennsylvania.
In 2004, DEP agreed not to enforce the pollution limits at issue in this case until 2011. In the same side agreement with the company, DEP also reserved the right to extend this deadline, which it has already done once (until 2012). As the court ruled, however, that agreement does not prevent citizen groups from suing to enforce the federally required limits set forth in GenOn’s Clean Water Act permit.
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PennEnvironment is a statewide citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. Sierra Club is the nation’s largest conservation organization. The groups are represented by the Boston-based, non-profit National Environmental Law Center (NELC) and by attorney Thomas J. Farrell of Pittsburgh For more information about this or other PennEnvironment projects, please visit our website at www.PennEnvironment.org.
Photo courtesy of Emily Falk
117-Motion-For-Summary-Judgment-Granted.pdf