American Crystal Hillsboro Power Plant
American Crystal Hillsboro Power Plant is a 13.3-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power station owned and operated by American Crystal Sugar Company near Hillsboro, North Dakota. The plant powers American Crystal's sugar beet processing facility.
Location
Plant Data
- Owner: American Crystal Sugar Company
- Parent Company: American Crystal Sugar Company
- Plant Nameplate Capacity: 13.3 MW (Megawatts)
- Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 13.3 MW (1990)
- Location: U.S. Hwy. 81 North, Hillsboro, ND 58045
- GPS Coordinates: 47.438046, -97.062586
- Technology: Subcritical Fluidized Bed Technology
- Coal type: Sub Bituminous
- Coal Consumption:
- Coal Source:
- Number of Employees:
- Unit Retirements:
Emissions Data
- CO2 Emissions: 252,603 tons (2006)
- SO2 Emissions:
- SO2 Emissions per MWh:
- NOx Emissions:
- Mercury Emissions:
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from American Crystal Hillsboro Power Plant
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[1] The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma-related episodes and asthma-related emergency room visits, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, peneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution is formed from a combination of soot, acid droplets, and metals formed from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and soot. Among those particles, the most dangerous are the smallest (smaller than 2.5 microns), which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly children, and those with respiratory disease. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. The table below estimates the death and illness attributable to the American Crystal Hillsboro Power Plant. Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[2]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the American Crystal Hillsboro Power Plant
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 3 | $21,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 4 | $490,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 48 | $2,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 2 | $49,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 2 | $790,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 3 | $1,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
- Existing Electric Generating Units in the United States, 2005, Energy Information Administration, accessed Jan. 2009.
- Environmental Integrity Project, "Dirty Kilowatts: America’s Most Polluting Power Plants", July 2007.
- Facility Registry System, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed Jan. 2009.
- Carbon Monitoring for Action database, accessed Feb. 2009.
- NETL Coal Power Plant Database, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2007.
- AirData Query Database, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, accessed April 2009.
