County orders Oakland boiler plant to cut emissions

Bellefield Boiler Plant is helping Pittsburgh clean up its reputation as the second… Bellefield Boiler Plant is helping Pittsburgh clean up its reputation as the second dirtiest city in the United States.

The Allegheny County Health Department issued a consent order agreement to Bellefield Boiler Plant last month ordering the factory to cut back on emissions by July 1. Oakland residents will breathe cleaner air and get some soot off their property.

As a result of the fuel conversion, sulfur oxide emissions will be cut by 99 percent, or 700 tons a year, and particulate emissions will be cut by 76 percent, or 170 tons a year, a county news release said.

Bellefield Boiler Plant, located in Junction Hollow behind the Carnegie Institute, supplies steam for heating the universities, hospitals, museums and other institutions in Oakland. Under the terms of the agreement with the Allegheny County Health Department, Bellefield Boiler Plant will stop burning coal and switch its six boilers to all natural gas combustion.

‘It will bring a measure of cleaner air to the area,’ said Dave Zazac, public information assistant for the health department. ‘It will also be a great relief to the people that live in the Hollow.’

Residents living in the Bellefield area of Oakland and around the Panther Hollow have complained of visible fine soot on their homes and cars for years, said Jim Thompson, chief of the health department’s Air Quality Program.

‘We investigated their complaints so we could build a case,’ said Thompson. ‘We collected enough evidence and related the evidence back to the plant.’

The Bellefield Boiler Plant was cited on Oct. 9 and 16, 2008, for excessive visible emission. Zazac said he could see the cloud of smoke against the clear sky.

Tim Mahaney, chairman of operating committee for the Bellefield Boiler Plant, said the plant had already been investigating for three years the options for continuing to burn coal or switching to natural gas. According to his records, the violations in October were a result of adjustments to the plant equipment.

‘We have never been out of compliance with the standards,’ said Mahaney, ‘The decision to switch to natural gas was made of our own volition before it was included in the consent agreement.’

The plant agreed to pay the $9,175 civil penalty fee to the Allegheny County Clean Air Fund to settle the alleged violations.

Fine soot, a particulate matter, and sulfur oxide, both caused by the burning of coal, are on the list of the six principle pollutants regulated by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. According to the standards created by the Federal Clean Air Act, limits on both pollutants were set in order to protect public health.

Zazac said that fine soot irritates lungs.

Bellefield Boiler Plant is aware of the benefits and the costs of switching to natural gas.

Coal has to be transported by train, unloaded into the plant, cleaned by large equipment, transported to boilers and handled at many different levels, while natural gas is simply fed through pipe lines.

‘Even though natural gas is more expensive,’ said Mahaney, ‘the savings in coal handling and the capital investments in equipment offset the costs.’