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EPA Orders Air Quality Improvements at Mystic Station Power Plant in Everett

Release Date: 03/06/2002
Contact Information: Mark Merchant, EPA Press Office (617) 918-1013

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has ordered the Mystic Station power plant in Everett to take immediate steps to reduce the amount of soot and other particulate pollutants coming out of its smoke stacks. Sithe Mystic, which owns the oil-fired power plant, is cooperating with EPA's compliance order. The order comes after years of complaints by Greater Boston residents about Mystic's smoke, which contains particulate pollution that can trigger asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Under the order signed by Sithe and EPA, the company is installing new ignition equipment on three of the facility's older generators – Units 4, 5 and 6 – each of which generates 135 megawatts. The work has already begun and will be finished by May 1. This summer, these three units also will switch, as necessary, to a lower sulfur, cleaner burning fuel oil that will further reduce soot emissions and help eliminate sulfur-based smoke plumes. Sithe also will conduct an extensive opacity monitoring and testing program for all four generators at the site which will help determine if additional compliance measures are needed.

"This order is a critical step towards bringing the Mystic power plant into much-needed compliance with state and federal limits on smoke emissions," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "I am pleased that Sithe has signed and is cooperating with the order. This will help ensure healthier air for all Greater Boston residents, especially for those living in low-income and minority neighborhoods that are more prone to cumulative environmental health effects."

The order stems from Mystic Station's long-standing violations of federal and state air regulations that prohibit sources from emitting thick, sooty smoke into the air. Specifically, Clean Air Act regulations prohibit smoke with than 20 percent opacity (a measure of smoke thickness) for more than six minutes per hour and prohibit smoke with more than 40 percent opacity at any time.

Last June, EPA issued Mystic a federal Clean Air Act violation notice documenting more than 290 opacity violations from July to December 2000. Many additional violations have been documented in 2001 and 2002. In 1997 and 1999, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued notices to Mystic Station for opacity violations.

The Mystic Station's violations compromise Greater Boston's air with excess soot and other particulate matter, resulting in significant potential health effects for hundreds of thousands of area residents. EPA's investigation showed that Mystic Station's opacity violations can raise ground-level particulate levels as much as three micrograms per cubic meter of air, thereby contributing on its own up to seven percent of unhealthy particulate levels at the ground level. EPA considers fine particulate levels above 40.4 micrograms per cubic meter to be unhealthful for sensitive populations such as children and the elderly.