USA Today – October 29, 2007
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-29-mercury-emitters_N.htm
By Larry Wheeler, Gannett News Service
CHESTER, Va. — The big power plant that hugs the shoreline of the winding James River just south of Richmond is getting bigger.
Construction of a sprawling pollution-control project will almost double the size of Dominion Resources’ Chesterfield plant, which supplies electricity to about 300,000 homes and businesses in central Virginia.
When it’s all over, the complex — including metal towers, a tile-lined wet scrubber and a towering new chimney — will cut the plant’s emissions of mercury and other pollutants by an estimated 90%.
Just six years ago, the coal-burning plant was one of the nation’s largest mercury polluters, releasing 1,300 pounds of the metal into the air. But even before the new pollution controls could be installed, the plant’s mercury output was cut to 360 pounds in 2005. While the plant is now burning coal that is lower in mercury content, part of the reduction is explained by more accurate emissions estimates.