How much pollution from a coal burning power plant settles in the immediate surrounding area?
December 27th, 2009 | 
Author: I hope to move abroad to Lamma Island in Hong Kong. However, on the island there sits a giant coal firing power plant – about 300 metres away from where I plan to live. I’m really sensitive to pollution and I don’t know how much pollution would settle around the plant and how much would be carried away further afield. Any helpful answers would be much appreciated.
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All depends on how high the smoke stack is. It would have to be very short to bother you that close. Higher up there is usually a stronger wind that will carry pollutants away and spread it over a wider area. The last few times I was in HK there was always a breeze. You might be affected by dust stirred up and exhaust from the trucks moving coal around though.
Older Plants are Dirtier
When the Clean Air Act of the 1970s was passed, Congress included a "grandfathering" loophole that allowed older power plants to avoid meeting the modern pollution control standards that new facilities had to adapt. At the time, Congress allowed the loophole because it expected that these "grandfathered" plants would soon retire and be replaced by cleaner, new plants. However, many of these older coal-fired power plants have sidestepped the new source review provision and have illegally avoided installing modern pollution controls.2 As a result, today most existing power plants are between 30-50 years old and are up to 10 times dirtier than new power plants.3 We are now faced with a disproportionate amount of pollution coming from these old, dirty, under-controlled plants.
Dirty Coal-Fired Power Plants and Air Pollution
Power plants are a major source of air pollution, with coal-fired power plants spewing 59% of total U.S. sulfur dioxide pollution and 18% of total nitrogen oxides every year.4 Coal-fired power plants are also the largest polluter of toxic mercury pollution5, largest contributor of hazardous air toxics6, and release about 50% of particle pollution.7 Additionally, power plants release over 40% of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, a prime contributor to global warming.
I would suggest you to you, that you go a little farther. Or maybe even go in the nighbourhood where you want to go while the power plant is working and stand outside and see what happens.
Good luck!
I believe that one of the major networks-(abc,cbs or nbc)- reported a story about mercury induced illness’s being concentrated in the upper northeast area of the u.s. They detailed how coal-fired electric plants, in the midwest, were the cause of this fall-out. Something about how the prevailing winds carried the by-products,at a high elevation, and were re-deposited on areas over the northeast, a thousand miles away.