Overview
The Tampa Electric Company’s Big Bend Station in Apollo Beach creates a toxic environmental issue for the surrounding communities. Water pollution arising from this plant is slowly poisoning the environment by leaching toxins such as arsenic, boron, molybdenum, mercury, chromium, and others into the drinking water. The main source of concern for the TECO plant is the use of millions of tons of coal burning continuously to power the plant. The chemicals given off by the plant may cause cancer, organ damage, anemia, and breathing problems along with a host of other environmental sicknesses and disease. The resulting ash and smoke plumes can be seen from interstate 75, Hwy 41 and Big Bend …show more content…
The settlement is the first of its kind in the battle to prevent illegal pollution by coal fired plants; the civil portion of the settlement requires TECO to pay 3.5 million in civil penalty – as to the rest of the settlement - “Under the agreement, Tampa Electric will install permanent emissions-control equipment to meet stringent pollution limits; implement a series of interim pollution-reduction measures to reduce emissions while the permanent controls are designed and installed; and retire pollution emission allowances that Tampa Electric or others could use, or sell to others, to emit additional pollution into the environment. The settlement also requires the company to spend between $10 and $11 million on environmentally beneficial projects in the region designed to mitigate the impact of emissions from the company's plants.” (Tampa Electric Company (TECO) Clean Air Act (CAA) Settlement).
Proposed Legislation To combat the emissions from the coal fired plants that are approximate forty-two years old and do not operate efficiently for the present even though many of them have been retro-fitted; I propose scaling back on the around the clock running of the coal fired methods and phasing in more