Environmental Lawsuit against BWL: The Big Picture

Above: Stacks at BWL's Eckert Station

The decision in 2010 by the Lansing Board of Water Light (BWL) to build a new gas fired plant rather than a new coal burning plant and to retire three of the six coal burning units at the Eckert plant in downtown Lansing has had important public health benefits to all of us who live in Ingham County and Michigan. Not only has there been less death and illness from heart disease, chronic obstructive lung disease and asthma from closure of these three units, but there has been less adverse effect on lung growth in healthy growing children.

What was left unchanged by BWL’s decision is the lack of adequate pollution controls at the Erickson facility and on the three remaining units that are still functioning at the Eckert facility. The units that continue to operate do not have the controls that are required of new facilities and, despite multiple modifications over the years, these older units have been allowed to continue to claim grandfathered status, evade implementation of current pollution controls, and are “legally” allowed to pollute the air at rates 2-6 times that of newer facilities.

The recent notice by the Sierra Club of their intent to sue BWL brings evidence of even more pollution. On top of the grandfathering provision that legally allows the BWL’s Erickson and Everett facilities to pollute at levels 2-6 times that of newer facilities, the Sierra Club notice indicates that these facilities had 3,570 violations of their permits from 2009-2013. These violations are for releasing pollutants beyond those allowed under their loose, grandfathered permits.

The effects of air pollution have been well documented in the medical literature and the cost-benefit analysis of air pollution regulations has repeatedly shown that the benefits of decreased illness and death are worth the cost of stricter regulation. New pending federal regulations on ozone and mercury will be useful in further reducing the effects of air pollution. But the Sierra Club's notice of intent to sue illustrates that regulations alone are not sufficient to achieve gains in pollution reduction and public health if utilities are not held responsible for meeting those regulations.

Air pollution is more than a local issue. Each of us breathes in 10,000 liters of air a day and we are all affected by decisions regarding air quality. Health and quality of life improve with clean air. The dirtiest air in Michigan is not only in the Detroit metropolitan area, as some might presume, but also in the counties along Lake Michigan. With the prevailing wind from the west, West Michigan receives the discharges from Chicago and Milwaukee. The greatest effect of the pollution from the Erickson and Eckert facilities may actually be in the Detroit metropolitan area. The Sierra Club's move may have the effect of pushing the Lansing Board of Water Light to not only meet their existing permits, but also to encourage the Board to accelerate the process of closing down their remaining coal burning units at the Eckert facility, which were built in the 1950’s, and at the Erickson facility, built in the 1970’s.

Read the Sierra Club's letter to BWL.

Ken Rosenman, MD, is Chief of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Professor of Medicine at MSU’s College of Human Medicine.

Update, March 25, 2015, 11 am: (1) This article was changed slightly to clarify the Sierra has issued an intent to sue but has not filed a lawsuit. (2) We added the Sierra Club's letter to BWL, as supplied to us by the Sierra club.