March 31, 2004—The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the State of South Carolina, on March 16 announced a major Clean Air Act settlement with the South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper). The settlement resolves the federal government’s claims that Santee Cooper, a quasi-public South Carolina utility, violated the Clean Air Act New Source Review program at several of its plants by undertaking construction activities and increasing emissions of air pollution without installing required pollution controls. The settlement is expected to eliminate almost 70,000 tons of harmful air pollutants annually from four of Santee Cooper’s existing coal-fired electricity generating plants in South Carolina.
The settlement, consistent with a series of cases pursued by the federal government to bring the coal-fired power plant industry into full compliance with the New Source Review requirements of the Clean Air Act, requires Santee Cooper to install state-of-the-art controls on more than 83% of its existing total coal-fired megawatt generating capacity. In addition to reducing 37,500 tons per year of SO2 and 29,500 tons per year of NOx from its existing coal-fired units, Santee Cooper is required to improve its control of particulate matter. The company will also pay a $2 million civil penalty, partly to the State of South Carolina, and will spend at least $4.5 million to finance projects that are environmentally beneficial.
