This week GASP and RRI Energy finalized an agreement to address lead emissions from RRI's coal-fired Cheswick Power Station in Springdale, Pennsylvania.  The negotiations were prompted after GASP, a number of residents living near the Cheswick Power Station, and students at Springdale High School expressed concern that a proposed permit amendment could result in increased lead emissions from the plant. 

Under the terms of the agreement, RRI will ask the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) to make several changes to RRI's permit to install a scrubber at the Cheswick facility. These changes will include a lower limit on permissible lead emissions, an increase in the frequency of stack testing for lead from every 5 years to every 2 years, and a requirement that RRI provide the monthly average lead content of coal combusted at the facility to ACHD.

"We're pleased with the agreement," said Joe Osborne, GASP legal director. "We approached RRI with our concerns, and, to their credit, they worked with us to find a solution we could all be satisfied with. This agreement provides assurance that emissions of toxic lead will not increase as a result of the scrubber project."

In addition to providing for no increase in lead emissions, the scrubber project should significantly reduce the Cheswick Plant's emissions of several pollutants, most notably sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.