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Big Bend Cleaning Up

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2007

Updated: 11/22/2007 02:33 am

APOLLO BEACH - Big Bend Station, the powerhouse of Tampa Electric Co.'s facilities network, hums around the clock to fulfill the demands of a growing population.

But neighbors may have noticed a little extra activity in recent months, as workers at Big Bend put the finishing touches on a cleanup project intended to meet the demands of a more environmentally conscious populace.

"By 2010, we'll see dramatic improvement" in air quality around the coal-fired plant, said TECO spokesman Rick Morera.

He and Jim Robertson, TECO's general manager of engineering and construction projects, provided an update of the Big Bend construction last week at a meeting of the Apollo Beach Civic Association.

Big Bend once was considered among the dirtiest power plants in the nation. To settle a lawsuit with local and federal environmental regulators, TECO in 2000 launched a series of technological renovations valued at $1.2 billion and aimed at removing harmful pollutants belched into the air after burning coal to generate electricity.

Since then, the utility has converted its former Gannon Station in Tampa from coal to natural gas, improved scrubbers on its Big Bend combustion units to remove sulfur dioxide and made other improvements to reduce emissions of fine particles, mercury and carbon dioxide.

Despite the improvements, the plumes of steam from Big Bend's stacks often are tinged with a brown hue. That's attributed to nitrogen oxide, nicknamed NOx, which is next on the list for cleanup, Morera said.

Once the current $330 million antipollution project at Big Bend is completed, NOx emissions will be reduced by about 89 percent from 1998 levels, thus banishing the brownish haze from the skies above the plant, Morera said.
Nitrogen oxide contributes to smog, and some environmental scientists have said rain may wash the pollutant into Tampa Bay, where it fuels algal blooms that disrupt a healthy aquatic habitat.

As of last year, TECO had met or surpassed its target air pollution reductions in all categories, including cutting its sulfur dioxide emissions by 91 percent, Morera said.

Officials with Hillsborough County's Environmental Protection Commission, which monitors air quality, said Monday that TECO has not had any recent air pollution violations. Residents occasionally complain about dust, but sampling in Apollo Beach has not shown higher levels of fine particles than elsewhere in the county, said Jerry Campbell, director of EPC's air management division.

The real improvements in air quality will continue to be regional, Campbell said, noting that improvements at Big Bend and Gannon helped get Tampa Bay off a federal "bad air" list that required vehicle emissions testing and other restrictions.

"This cleanup effort resulting from the lawsuit settlement is historic and probably the single largest action being undertaken to improve air quality in the area," Campbell said.

In 2005, preliminary work to prepare for NOx reductions at Big Bend began. Early this year, the power company shut down one of its four coal-fired units to install equipment that works like a car's catalytic converter to clean the dirty exhaust.

"It's a series of extraordinarily large ductwork, massive ductwork, that is installed and tied into each unit," Morera said. The system is built on top of the combustion turbine, he said, and uses ammonia to turn nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and water.

To allow construction, the unit was down from February to May, Morera said. Now workers are outfitting a second unit with the same technology, with a scheduled completion date of May 1. The remaining two units will receive the treatment over the next two years.

The TECO presentation came just days after an ammonia pipeline leak in Riverview shut down U.S. 301 near the Alafia River for two days, closing schools and prompting officials to evacuate hundreds of people. Sheriff's officials said the leak occurred after a teenager drilled into the pipeline.

Ammonia used in the NOx cleansing process travels to Big Bend from the Port of Tampa via a pipeline that, unlike the Riverview conduit, is buried for its entire route, Morera said.

"I think the chances of similar vandalism are greatly reduced," he said.

Jeanette Doyle, a civic association member who organized the presentation, said the reaction of residents who attended the meeting was mixed. Some said they had noticed an improvement in air quality around the plant, but others said their patios and cars are still coated with dust they attribute to TECO operations.

"We'll continue to look at the coal yard out there to keep it wet so there's less dust coming off it," Morera said.

The Apollo Beach Civic Association meets at 7 p.m. the third Thursday of the month at the Apollo Beach Recreation Center, 664 Golf and Sea Blvd. No December meeting is planned because of the holidays. For information, call (813) 310-8738.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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