Pa. agency fines FirstEnergy for residue from smokestack

The plant also released oily soot on a neighborhood last year.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The state Department of Environmental Protection fined FirstEnergy Corp. $25,000 for residue from a power plant smokestack that covered more than two dozen properties in June.

The fine, the maximum allowed under the state’s Air Pollution Control Act, is the second issued this year. The DEP fined the Akron, Ohio-based company $25,000 in January for a similar release in July 2006.

The June incident at FirstEnergy Corp.’s coal-fired power plant in Shippingport, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, left gray, gritty material on 28 homes and properties in Beaver County.

“While the June 10 event affected far fewer homes and residents than the July 2006 event, the fact that a second stack rain-out occurred is unacceptable,” Kenneth Bowman, the DEP’s southwest regional director, said in a statement Monday.

In the previous release, oily soot from the plant’s smokestacks covered more than 300 homes.

Problem fixed

The problem was caused by a malfunction with the plant’s scrubbers, which are used to clean emissions. The fine has been paid and the problem fixed, said FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin.

“Through all this, we very much apologize for any inconvenience our neighbors around the plant experienced,” he said.

FirstEnergy said it would also increase its inspections, add additional monitors and instrumentation, and clean the equipment more frequently to prevent future releases.

Sampling by the DEP, FirstEnergy and a community activist found elevated levels of arsenic in the material that residents described as like black, sticky sugar. The DEP, however, said there was no public health hazard.