LCRA serves as a steward of the Central Texas environment, and its electric power business is no exception.
LCRA has been a renewable energy leader in Texas since it finished building Buchanan Dam in 1937. Today, all LCRA's fossil fuel-fired electric generation facilities maintain better air quality standards than required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The Sim Gideon and Thomas C. Ferguson power plants, which are fueled by clean-burning natural gas, continuously monitor plant emissions to ensure compliance with the federal Clean Air Act of 1990.
LCRA also regularly tests the lake water used in power generation for pollutants, proper oxygen levels and safe temperatures. To ensure long-term water quality, all LCRA power plants also use landscaping and operational practices that help prevent nonpoint-source pollution.
New technology
Lost Pines 1 Power Project, which is owned by LCRA affiliate GenTex Power Corporation, uses newer combined-cycle power production technology to produce power, using less fuel and releasing fewer nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions than traditional gas-fired plants. Before Lost Pines 1 opened next to Sim Gideon Power Plant in 2001, the plant owners worked with regional environmental groups to develop a plan that ultimately cut site emissions by nearly half. For an update on the plan's success, see Lost Pines Air Quality Update.
In October 2002, the Fayette Power Project (FPP) near La Grange, which burns coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, committed to meeting even stricter emissions guidelines. LCRA staff worked with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency through the development and issuance of the first-of-its-kind flexible permit. Under the permit, LCRA and plant co-owner Austin Energy committed to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from units 1 and 2 by more than 90 percent and NOx emissions by more than 50 percent. FPP already removes more than 80 percent of SO2 from Unit 3's emission gases by using a flue gas desulphurization (FGD) scrubber.
Recycling and reforestation
In 2006, the latest year available, FPP recycled more than 100 percent of coal ash byproducts for reuse in such products as cement, road base and building materials. (The number is more than 100 percent because LCRA has sold byproducts previously stored on site.) In mid-2002, the plant was presented a World Environmental Improvement award by Industrial Service Group (ISG) Resources, a leading coal byproducts recycling firm, for the air quality benefits of its reuse of coal ash. FPP reports a toxics release inventory to the EPA each year as required by federal law. See Community Right to Know.
For more information about LCRA's environmental leadership efforts, see Environmental Leadership.
