Talen Energy Gets $1 Million Fines Over Pollution at The Power Plant

Practically a year after four environmental organizations threatened Talen Energy with a trial over pollution at a York County plant, the Allentown power producer agreed to pay a $1 million penalty.

The Environmental Integrity Project of Washington, D.C., which introduced a settlement Wednesday, mentioned in an information launch that Talen agreed through a courtroom document to the civil penalty associated to the Brunner Island Energy Plant. Besides Talen pledged to Shut and excavate an ash pond.

Monitor and address leakage of pollutants from different Brunner Island waste sites.

Contribute $100,000 to fund supplemental initiatives to cut back water pollution within the Susquehanna River and nearby waterways.

The Environmental Integrity Project, on the side of environmental teams, filed a discover of intent to sue Talen last August over alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Notably, the groups alleged that two lively contaminant basins at Brunner Island have been placing dry and moist pollution into groundwater and in the end into the Black Gut Creek, which feeds into the Susquehanna.

That notice to sue led the Pennsylvania Division of Environmental Safety to analyze the claims, based on the EIP, which eventually led to Wednesday’s settlement.

Talen’s Debra Raggio said the corporate is happy to have settled.

Talen stated that as a part of the settlement the corporate would “examine and abate” groundwater circumstances in particular areas round sure washbasins, and it’ll decide to a shorter timeframe for closing the last operating ash basin. All waste is anticipated to be excavated by Dec. 31, 2031.

The settlement, as soon as approved in court docket, will end a complaint involving Talen, which famous it inherited the plant from PPL Corp. PPL spun off its energy-producing enterprise in 2015 to create Talen. Talen, which headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, has offices at downtown Allentown’s Tower 6 building,

For many years, the York Haven power plant, which came online in 1961, operated entirely as a coal-fired plant. But a multimillion-dollar renovation accomplished in 2017 upgraded the ability to a co-fire plant, allowing it to burn coal or natural gas.

Brunner Island, which has a producing capacity of 1,422 megawatts, made headlines last year.

Then in March 2018, Talen agreed to pay a $25,000 civil penalty to the state after officials decided the power plant induced the death of about 12,000 fish Dec. 20-21, 2016. The plant, which releases handled water into the Susquehanna River, initiated a shutdown on these days, producing the water temperature in a discharge channel to drop and shock the fish.