WHEATLAND – Basin Electric Power Cooperative is investing $350 million at Laramie River Station in a project to reduce regional haze in accordance with an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“We want to be proactive,” said David Cummings, Basin Electric environmental coordinator at Laramie River Station. 

Cummings gave a detailed presentation about Laramie River Station on Feb. 26, followed by a tour of the plant. Basin Electric is building selective catalytic reduction and selective non-catalytic reduction emission control technology into the plant, or SCR and SNCR.

Myron Singleton, Laramie River Station plant superintendent, explained the SCR is essentially a catalytic converter for the power plant. He compared SNCR to the pollution control mechanism in diesel engines. SCR and SNCR remove nitrous oxide compounds, which are the primary ingredients of smog and are byproducts from burning coal.

Singleton estimated SNCR will be operational by December, and SCR should be online by July 2019. Cummings said those dates are compliance dates for the regional haze agreement that Basin Electric has with the EPA.

Cummings explained SCR and SNCR remove the nitrous oxide compounds, or NOx, by turning the pollution back into nitrogen and oxygen, harmless air.

“It’s a pretty new innovation,” said Curt Pearson, Basin Electric communications director.

Pearson said Laramie River Station controls mercury pollution, another byproduct of burning coal, with powder activated carbon. The mercury sticks to the carbon and then goes into the solid waste stream. He said studies have shown mercury, once released into the atmosphere, can stay there for 100 years. The ensuing mercury deposits poison streams and other habitats.

Cummings said the plant meets the Clean Air Act’s mercury air toxic standard 100 percent of the time. He said Basin Electric has invested nearly $500 million in the last 10 years for pollution control, including mercury control and burners that can burn the coal at lower temperatures, which releases less NOx.

“Most of the equipment here is to handle material after we’ve generated electricity,” Cummings noted.

On a diagram of the power plant, Singleton used a laser pointer to indicate how much of the plant is devoted to pollution control and how much to generate electricity. 

“The footprint of the pollution control is twice as big as the part to make electricity,” Singleton observed.

Laramie River Station is owned by six electrical cooperatives: Basin Electric, which owns the largest share and operates the plant, is headquartered in Bismarck, N.D.; Heartland Consumers Power District, Madison, S.D.; Lincoln Electric System, Lincoln, Neb.; Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Denver; Western Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, represented in the project by Missouri River Energy Services, headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Wyoming Municipal Power Agency, Lusk, which provides wholesale electricity for eight public power communities in Wyoming: Wheatland, Cody, Powell, Lusk, Lingle, Guernsey, Fort Laramie and Pine Bluffs.

Cummings noted Wyoming Municipal Power Agency is one of lowest cost electrical providers in the country. 

Rosemary Henry, executive director of Wyoming Municipal Power Agency, said WMPA owns 1.37 percent of Laramie River Station. 

“This has helped us keep costs low,” Henry said.

Cummings said Laramie River Station has lower operating costs than other coal plants in the nation because LRS gets coal exclusively from Wyoming Powder River Basin.

“We’re close, and it’s the best coal in the nation,” Cummings said.

Cummings explained the plant has some of the lowest transportation costs in the country. Three trains carry coal to LRS every two days from Powder River Basin. He also said Powder River Basin coal is naturally low in nitrous compounds and sulfur.

Cummings called sulfur dioxide, another byproduct of coal burning, “a very bad compound” that makes acid rain, which killed lakes decades ago. He said the EPA and states have cleaned that up, and he’s heard of formerly dead lakes on the East Coast that now have fish in them again.

Cummings said Laramie River Station never produced acid rain because it had scrubbers built into it from its beginning that remove the sulfur dioxide with ground limestone. He explained the sulfur dioxide reacts with the limestone to make calcium sulfate, which is harmless and is the main ingredient for drywall used in the construction industry. He said the nearest drywall manufacturer is too far away to ship the calcium sulfate.

The plant does sell its fly ash to concrete makers, however. Cummings said LRS sells them about 60 tons a year. He explained the fly ash is too fine to include with the solid waste stream; LRS has electrostatic precipitators that use an electrical charge to make the fine fly ash stick together in larger particles so it can be managed.

Cummings said the bottom ash, from the bottom of the boilers, goes to the landfill.

Pearson said Laramie River Station is the biggest employer and taxpayer in Platte County. The plant itself employs 350 regular workers, as well as hundreds of seasonal contract employees. He said the plant is educating local high school students about work opportunities through its BE Leaders program.

“So, students know they can have a good career that pays well, and you can stay in the area,” Pearson said.