By Wade Rawlins, Staff
Writer
Attorney General Roy Cooper sued the Tennessee Valley Authority today,
claiming the air pollution that blows across mountains into North Carolina
amounts to a public nuisance.
The lawsuit charges that pollutants spewed
from 11 coal-fired power plants in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee harm the
health of North Carolina residents as well as the state's environment and
economy. It does not seek money damages, but asks the court to order TVA to
reduce pollution that causes haze, soot and contributes to ground level ozone.
The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Asheville - the part
of Western North Carolina most affected by interstate pollution.
"We
thought it was important to bring this legal action where the harm was being
done," Cooper said in an interview. "I want the people of North Carolina to stop
getting sick from dirty air. I want to keep North Carolina business from getting
whacked with higher health costs because dirty air is making employees sick."
Sulfur dioxide, which is produced by burning coal or oil, can form a
fine soot that causes respiratory irritation and returns to earth as acid rain.
Nitrogen oxide, which is produced by power plants and motor vehicles, leads to
ground level ozone, which causes respiratory problems, particularly for people
with asthma. The lawsuit says the pollutants increases hospital visits and
raises the cost for the state to combat pollution.
"We will use modeling
showing pollution from TVA is coming into North Carolina," Cooper said. "We will
show that illness and death is caused by pollution from TVA. We will show there
is specific economic harm to North Carolina with rising health care costs and
injury to tourism."
Cooper said filing the lawsuit was a last resort
after other efforts had failed. Last year, the attorney general petitioned the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force the TVA to clean up its power
plants. EPA responded that a long-term plan to cap utilities emissions in 28
states in the eastern United States would address pollution from wafting into
other states..
But those reductions aren't expected under the EPA rule
until after 2015, and they give utilities flexibility in deciding which plants
should get pollution controls. State officials say those rules won't guarantee
that plants that most affect North Carolina will get pollution controls. North
Carolina passed a law in 2002 that requires power plants to cut emissions more
quickly.
"We've attempted to engage TVA in discussions, but had no
results thus far," he said. "We are willing to discuss legally binding
agreements on their part to reduce pollution."
TVA spokesman John
Moulton said utility officials had not had time to review the lawsuit.
"TVA is disappointed by this action and by the comments that Attorney
General Cooper has made in the past about TVA's emissions reductions," Moulton
said.
TVA officials have said the utility has been more aggressive than
North Carolina utilities in reducing air pollution and protested that a lawsuit
as an ineffective way to attack pollution. They've said that a regional approach
to reducing air pollution was needed, and entering legally binding agreements
between the federal utility and individual states was counterproductive.
TVA has spent $4 billion on pollution controls since 1977 and plans to
spend $1.7 billion by 2010 in response to federal air pollution laws. Even so,
data from the federal EPA shows that TVA plants in neighboring states spewed
more pollution than North Carolina-based plants produced in 2004.
"All
they've done is trumpeted their past actions which were required by federal
court decrees and talked about vague plans for the future that aren't binding,"
Cooper said.
Staff writer Wade Rawlins can be reached at 829-4528 or
wrawlins@newsobserver.com.
