Last night there was a hearing about the [tag]Mirant Power Plant[/tag] in [tag]Alexandria[/tag]. A Washington Post article reported this morning that, “Members of a state environmental panel reviewing Mirant Corp. operations did not show up at a hearing in Alexandria on Monday night, angering City Council members and about 100 residents who had come to testify.”

To make a long and complicated story short and overly simplistic:

The Mirant Power Plant, a coal plant opened in 1949 in the northern section of Alexandria, supplies power to Maryland and the District. In 2005, Mirant’s Potomac River Generating Station was charged with Clean Air Act violations. Mirant conceded in August 1995 that the plant violated Federal Air Quality guidelines and shut down temporarily. As it was a voluntary shutdown, they did not have to meet any standards or make specific changes in order to re-open. They reopened in December 1995, at reduced capacity, after finding a way to change the way they measured the pollutants they were spewing (which is much easier than actually improving the plant).

Pepco has complained for years that Maryland and the District need this plant and always act as though the issue is a surprise from left-field that they can’t possibly address overnight. Of course they can’t. But they’ve complained for many years, and by now could have solved the problem if they’d really wanted to. Instead, they wait until their interests are threatened and then use the “emergency” situation to, for an example from November 2005, press the District Government to waive certain procedural requirements so that the transmission lines could be constructed on an expedited basis.

In March 2006 the EPA gave Mirant permission to operate at full capacity again, despite the secrecy shrouding their alleged new method for reducing pollutants. (I see no reason that we shouldn’t have total faith in the coal industry when they say “Just trust us,” do you?) For some reason, State and Local officials, as well as citizens in Northern Virginia, were apoplectic.

At some point Mirant petitioned the FAA to allow them to raise the height of their smokestacks (the plant is directly across the river from National Airport). The FAA said no. Then the FAA said yes. Higher smokestacks means less pollution falls in the immediate vicinity of the plant, but that doesn’t actually reduce the amount of pollution emitted. I have to admit, the status of the smokestack-height issue is unclear to me at this time.

If you think the plant doesn’t spew nasty stuff, I’d suggest parking your car near the plant for a while and then running your hand over it. Or better yet, visit people who live in the area and look at their windows. It’s never been a mystery to long-time Alexandria residents why public housing, homeless shelters, and the like were traditionally clustered in this area.

If you’re looking for corporate information about Mirant, there’s the link to their site. For information from their opponents, StopMirant.com has one of the worst front pages I’ve ever seen, but the informational links on it are useful. You might want to start with the news articles or case files.