The licensee will inform the NRC resident inspector. Newark, NJ - New Jersey environmental officials believe the air in the Garden State will get a little cleaner, thanks to a historic agreement announced Thursday that would reduce the amount of smog that blows into the Garden State from points south. The agreement, the largest ever involving an electric power company accused of violating the U.S. Clean Air Act, requires Dominion Virginia Electric Power to reduce by 70 percent the pollution coming from eight of its coal-fired power plants in Virginia and West Virginia. Officials in New Jersey and many other Northeast states have long argued that chemicals, such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, that are released into the air from coal-fired power plants in the Midwest and South, are windswept into the Northeast. During the summer months, nitrogen oxide mixes with other chemicals in the air, bakes in the sun and creates ground-level ozone or smog, which causes breathing problems for people with respiratory ailments like asthma.
Sulfur dioxide is the leading cause of acid rain, which threatens lakes and waterways.
New Jersey will never meet the federal standards for clean and healthy air without these necessary plant upgrades, which we know are entirely achievable. New Jersey currently has lawsuits pending against two power companies, American Electric Power and Ohio Edison, both in Ohio. Last year, New York became the first state ever to file a lawsuit against a power company in another state, contending that Virginia Power violated the Clean Air Act. Yesterday's settlement, which has yet to be finalized, will resolve that suit. New Jersey will play a role in crafting the timetable and other details of settlement with Virginia Power because it was about to sue the company, alleging similar violations.