ALLENTOWN, PA---PPL Corp. today (4/20) re-emphasized its commitment to the public's right-to know about emissions originating from its Pennsylvania coal and oil power plants, including its Martins Creek plant in Northampton County.

The company first released 1998 data to the public more than nine months ago. The information is part of the soon-to-be-released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 1998 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Information was made available through the PPL website, public information sessions, meetings with community leaders and through the news media.

Most coal- and oil-fired power plants, including those operated by PPL, submitted TRI reports containing 1998 data to the EPA for the first time ever in 1999. TRI is a part of the Federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know program.

The TRI public database covers more than 650 substances reported from many different industrial facilities across the country. The EPA compiles this data in an annual report and publishes the data on the Internet. The national TRI database covering 1998 data is expected to be available any day.

As the release date for the EPA's 1998 TRI data nears, PPL's head of Environmental Management, Lynn Ratzell, voiced support for the public's right-to-know.

"TRI is a reporting requirement based on the premise that people have a right-to-know about the substances being released to the environment," said Ratzell. "We support this premise, and that is why we have been very open to the public with our data."

PPL tracks environmental performance on its air emissions. The company's internal environmental performance reporting for Martins Creek shows that: 

The company has added the capability for its two oil-fired units at the plant to burn cleaner natural gas that has lower overall emissions, including reduced releases of TRI substances.

• The plant has reduced TRI-reportable substances by about 30 percent since 1990 by using oil and natural gas, and using less coal to generate the same amount of electricity.
• The plant has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by about 30 percent since 1990.
• The plant has reduced emissions of nitrogen oxide by more than 50 percent since 1990 during the ozone season.

The vast majority of the TRI substances that PPL reported to the EPA for its five coal and oil plants for 1998 were gases released to the air through the company's power plant stacks, or stack gases. PPL plants also reported much smaller amounts of several minerals, which are all contained in coal and oil, and the bulk of these minerals remain in the ash produced when coal and oil are used to generate electricity.

It is highly unlikely that the dilute stack gases can impact human health in any particular individual. The EPA identified two of the three stack gases released in large quantities for health risk assessment: hydrogen fluoride and hydrochloric acid aerosol. Based on this assessment, EPA concluded that the risk to human health is so small that it does not warrant any regulatory control on these substances' release to address health impacts. The third stack gas, sulfuric acid aerosol, was not studied because the EPA has not identified that substance as a hazardous air pollutant, although it is reported on TRI.

Ratzell also stressed that PPL power plants have not changed the way they operate because of TRI concerns. "We continue to maintain an excellent compliance record with all state and federal environmental laws and regulations," he said. "Our plants operate with the same controls as they had before this new TRI requirement."

Since 1990, PPL has been taking actions that have reduced most of its power plant emissions in Pennsylvania, including TRI releases:

• The company has reduced its nitrogen oxide emissions rate (one of the causes of smog or ground level ozone) by about 60 percent from 1990 levels during the ozone season and will continue reducing its nitrogen oxide emissions rate over the next few years.
• The company has cut its sulfur dioxide emissions rate (a substance linked with acid rain) by nearly 30 percent since 1990. The company plans to cut sulfur dioxide by another 20% from 1990 levels by the end of 2000.
• The company has reduced its overall TRI-covered substances since 1990 by about 20 percent mostly due to its beneficial reuse of coal ash instead of disposing of it as a waste.
• The company intends to reduce its overall TRI-covered substances in Pennsylvania, by about another 20 percent by the end of the year 2000 by the continued beneficial reuse of coal ash, by switching to low sulfur fuels, and by the 1999 sale of the Sunbury coal plant and the 1999 decommissioning of the Holtwood coal plant.

"We work very hard to balance our environmental responsibility with our obligation to our shareowners and customers to generate power in a cost-effective and reliable way," said Ratzell.

The company has developed information kits on its TRI releases, which is posted on its Internet web site at: www.pplresources.com Anyone interested in obtaining a TRI information kit from PPL also can obtain one by calling 1-800-650-3184.