<< Back 11/27/02 TVA invests in pollution controls for coal plants SMN The Tennessee Valley Authority has placed a $1.5 billion order for smokestack scrubbers that could sharply reduce haze and acid rain throughout the region. The five scrubber systems will be installed at TVA’s Bull Run and Kingston coal-fired plants in eastern Tennessee and at two other plants in north Alabama and western Kentucky. The systems should reduce TVA’s sulfur dioxide emissions by about 200,000 tons a year. The utility’s 11 coal plants released about 600,000 tons last year — down 75 percent since the 1970s. “This is excellent news in terms of improving visibility and reducing the acid deposition that goes into our streams and affects soils in the park,” said Smokies spokesperson Bob Miller. The installation should improve air quality throughout Western North Carolina. Still, TVA’s reductions fall short of what North Carolina power plants will be required to do under the Clean Smokestacks Act passed in the recent General Assembly session. Visibility in the Smokies has fallen from 93 miles to 25 miles, largely due to sulfur emissions from coal-fired power plants. All the scrubbers are expected to be operational within eight years.