For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Contacts:
Erin Fonken, Environmental Integrity Project,
Jenna Garland, Sierra Club,
Neil Carman, Sierra Club,
(512) 637-9474
(404) 607-1262 x 222, (404)281-6398
(512) 663-9594
TXU-Luminant Violates Clean Air Act Thousands of
Times, Endangering Nearby Communities
Sierra Club Files Suit in Federal Court, Seeking to Halt Illegal and Dangerous Pollution
from the Big Brown Coal-Fired Power Plant
[Dallas, Texas] – Today, Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), on behalf of the Sierra Club, filed suit
against Energy Future Holdings Corp. and its subsidiary, Luminant Generation Company, LLC (formerly
TXU) in a Waco federal court for thousands of violations of the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit targets
thousands of ongoing air pollution violations at Luminant’s Big Brown coal-fired power plant in
Freestone County, northeast of Waco, Texas. In October of 2011, the groups gave Luminant notice of
their intent to sue for the thousands of ongoing air pollution violations, unless Luminant took steps to
clean up the plant’s pollution. Luminant officials have taken no action in response, and have continued
to ignore the limits in air pollution permits for the Big Brown coal-fired power plant, forcing the groups
to bring this lawsuit.
“Luminant’s old and outdated Big Brown plant continually fails to comply with its lenient air permit
limits, and as a result, the health of Texans, nearby lakes, and farmlands are suffering,” said EIP attorney
Erin Fonken. “This lawsuit seeks to accomplish what the state has failed to do—to force Luminant to
control its air pollution like hundreds of power plants around the country are already doing.”
Today’s lawsuit targets the Big Brown plant’s excessive emissions of particulate matter, also known as
soot. Soot contributes to asthma, heart attacks, serious respiratory illnesses, and thousands of
premature deaths every year. Soot may also contain mercury, a highly toxic metal that can adversely
affect a baby’s growing brain and nervous system, in addition to a slew of other toxic metals.
“Luminant self-monitors its plants, and according to the company’s own data, the Big Brown plant has
violated the requirements of its own air permit thousands of times,” said Dr. Neil Carman, Air Program
Director of the Lone Star Chapter of Sierra Club. “What’s troubling is that Luminant’s Big Brown plant
has very lenient pollution standards compared to other power plants, and the plant is still pumping out
more than three times the legal limit. That impacts the health and wellbeing of Texans.”
According to company data, Luminant’s Big Brown power plant violated its particulate matter, or smog,
limits at least 370 times in the past three and a half years. From 2006 to 2011, the Big Brown plant
violated its opacity limit approximately 8,300 times. Opacity refers to visible emissions of particulate
matter and soot particles that are measured by a stack monitor and serves as a surrogate measure for
emissions controls.
“This plant ranks among the top polluting coal fired power plants across the country dumping harmful
emissions upon rural people, our land, and our drinking water. With state regulators unwilling to
address the pollution problems created by Big Brown, a citizen suit is necessary to expose, prevent, and
protect those of us, in this rural area of Texas, who must live with the outdated and dirty operations
going on at the Big Brown power plant,” said Vicky Prater, with COPPS for Clean Air and Navarro County
resident.
In September of 2010, EIP and Earthjustice, on behalf of the Sierra Club, sued Luminant for similar
violations at its Martin Lake power plant in Rusk County, Texas; that case is still pending. In 2007, when
TXU became Luminant through a highly leveraged buyout, company officials promised to make the
company a leader in environmental stewardship for Texas. However, three of Luminant’s coal plants Big Brown, Monticello, and Martin Lake - are the top three industrial polluters in Texas among nearly
2,000 industrial plants. These three exceptionally dirty plants, combined, emit more than 25% of the
state’s industrial air pollution and more than 46% of the state’s coal plant pollution, according to data
Luminant filed in 2009 with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Dr. Carman added, “For far too long Luminant has failed to clean up its harmful pollution and chosen not
to install pollution controls, even as many other power plant operators were cleaning up their
plants. Those days are over and in order to bring Big Brown into compliance, Luminant must decide if it
will clean up the power plant or retire it."
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