Hoosiers rely on coal-fired utilities to supply electricity. Ninety-eight percent of Indiana’s electricity is generated from the burning of coal. Coal contains many harmful compounds. The Clean Air Act was designed to reduce and eliminate pollutants, like sulfur and nitrogen oxides, that threaten human health. Although mercury has been recognized as a dangerous substance, its emissions from power plants have not been regulated under the Clean Air Act. Because coal-fired plants are significant contributors to atmospheric mercury, this report focuses on those emissions and the lack of their mercury controls and monitoring. This report attempts to illustrate how the burning of coal contributes to mercury contamination of lakes in Indiana. Although it is impossible to target where emissions from specific smokestacks go, based on national computer modeling of mercury emission source locations, wind, and precipitation, we can infer that a large part of the mercury in these lakes comes from the stacks of local power plants.
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Top three
coal-fired utilities
closest to these seven lakes and reservoirs
| Lake | Closest Utility/Plant | Coal burned in ’96 (tons) | Mi | 2nd Closest Utility/Plant | Coal burned in ’96 (tons) | Mi | 3rd Closest Utility/Plant | Coal burned in ’96 (tons) | Mi |
| Lake James | NIPSCO Michigan City | 1,460,880 | 95 | NIPSCO Schafer | 4,404,555 | 100 | NIPSCO Bailly | 1,272,046 | 100 |
| Olin Lake | NIPSCO Schaffer | 1,460,880 | 85 | NIPSCO Michigan City | 4,404,555 | 90 | NIPSCO Bailly | 1,272,046 | 90 |
| Oliver Lake | NIPSCO Schaffer | 1,460,880 | 85 | NIPSCO Michigan City | 4,404,555 | 90 | NIPSCO Bailly | 1,272,046 | 90 |
| Lake Waubee | NIPSCO Michigan City | 1,460,880 | 55 | NIPSCO Schaffer | 4,404,555 | 60 | NIPSCO Bailly | 1,272,046 | 60 |
| Lake Wawasee | NIPSCO Michigan City | 1,460,880 | 60 | NIPSCO Schaffer | 4,404,555 | 65 | NIPSCO Bailly | 1,272,046 | 65 |
| Eagle Creek Reservoir | IPALCO Stout | 1,385,779 | 15 | Electric L&P Crawfordsville | 9,400 | 35 | Cinergy Cayuga | 2,378,664 | 60 |
| Patoka Lake* | Jasper Municipal | Not required to report | 12 | IPALCO Petersburg | 5,104,937 | 30 | Hoosier Energy Ratts Station | 3,188,071 | 30 |
| *Hoosier Energy’s Merom plant
30 miles away used 498,368 tons of coal in 1996,
Cinergy’s Edwardsport plant 35 miles away used
154,178 tons of coal in 1996, Cinergy’s Gibson plant
60 miles away used 7,640,597 tons of coal in 1996, and
AEP’s Rockport plant 80 miles away used 10,100,285
tons of coal in 1996. These all are potential
contributors to mercury air deposition in Patoka Lake. *Indianapolis’s high mercury levels are also due in part to a municipal waste incinerator and medical waste incinerators that are located within Marion County. Modeling done by the EPA of prevailing winds and emissions from power plants and other sources show that these emissions are usually blown towards the east.8 The power plants in the table are all upwind, or within prevailing wind patterns, of the lakes studied in this report. In central Indiana, the municipal waste incinerator, the hospital incinerators, as well as the coal-fired power plants, are large contributors to mercury levels. In southern Indiana, there are many plants in the southwest corner of the state. The Ohio and Wabash Rivers are lined with coal-fired power plants and they are likely contributors to Patoka Lake’s levels of mercury. Power plants and other mercury emission sources in neighboring states, especially Illinois and Kentucky, play a role in Indiana’s contamination problem. Likewise, Indiana power plants and other sources contribute to contamination in downwind states like Ohio and Michigan. In the last pages, this report will describe ways to solve these problems in Indiana and the Great Lakes region.
For questions, please contact HEC |
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