Strange Air Today. December 15, 2006 – Photo and Text by John Blair at ValleyWatch.net.
Regional particulate pollution is on the rise today and there are reports from parents in Warrick County of “unusual smells” in the air. Rising temperatures, reaching near the 70s are causing morning fogs but the particle levels keep visibility low. This photo was taken on an aerial survey today.
The Rockport Power Plant, operated by the Indiana Michigan Electric Company, is a subsidiary of American Electric Power. Rockport supplies electricity to northeastern Indiana and southern Michigan leaving its considerable pollution legacy in southwest indiana, more than three hundred miles from its market.
In 2002, the last data available, Rockport emitted:
• 16,837,252 tons of Carbon Dioxide
• 53,196 tons of Sulfur Dioxide
• 34,243 tons of Nitrogen Oxide
and a whopping 806 pounds of neurological poison mercury.
When I interviewed the former president of the company in 1978, asking about those large emissions figures, he replied, “Well, there is an awful lot of air out there.”
Find out more about Indiana’s power plant emissions
You might be interested to know that the exhaust coming from those two towers is actually 100% water vapor. It’s only black because the photo was taken on a cloudy day. Those are water cooling towers. The actual harmful emissions only come out of the tall stack after going through scrubbers and other processes to remove as many polutants as possible.
Just a little info from your friendly neighborhood observer.
You’re right – the stack is the taller tower. However, the water vapor isn’t 100% – the chemicals used during coal processing end up in those towers, albeit in small amounts, and become airborne emissions.
Also, the stack looks pretty filthy itself, and I’m not sure if this plant has much in the way of scrubbers (which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars for a facility that size).