Patuxent Coal Plant at Chalk Point Set to Retire

12-06-13; Acquasco,MD–This week, NRG Energy signaled that it plans to retire the Chalk Point (Patuxent) and Dickerson (Potomac) coal plants in May 2017. Chalk Point, located along the Patuxent River in Prince George’s County, and also Dickerson, located in Montgomery County, are 2 of only 7 remaining coal plants in the state.

Air pollution from the Chalk Point and Dickerson coal plants contributes to 42 deaths and 680 asthma attacks per year, according to a report from the Maryland Clean Air Task Force. Chalk Point was also the scene of the worst manmade ecological disaster in Maryland history when a faulty fuel line located in Swanson Creek (next door to the plant) spilled over 11,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Patuxent River destroying its prime shellfish harvest areas.

In 2007 the plant was the subject of an enforcement action sponsored by Patuxent Riverkeeper and others dues to its chronic history of almost daily exceedances of its permitted air emissions. In 2012, the operators of the Chalk Point Plant paid over a million dollars in fines and signed a consent decree with the State of Maryland to clean up additional violations at its nearby coal waste facility located in Brandywine,MD.

The retirement of these facilities mean cleaner air in Maryland, but it also means cleaner water in area waterways. Due to excess discharges of nutrients into adjacent waterways, the Chalk Point and Dickerson coal plants have been in significant violation of their water pollution permits over the past several years. These violations led Food & Water Watch, Potomac Riverkeeper and Patuxent Riverkeeper – represented by the Columbia University School of Environmental Law Clinic – to file an action in federal court for violations of the Clean Water Act this past year. Currently, NRG Energy is in settlement negotiations with the groups and the Maryland Department of the Environment.