News

2006 news releases

OAQDA Approves Funding for Clean Air Projects at Two Ohio Power Plants
$1.255 billion bond package is agency’s largest-ever financing inducement

(Columbus) The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority (OAQDA) today agreed to issue bonds in an amount not to exceed $1.255 billion to finance the acquisition, construction, and installation of air quality facilities at two coal-fired power plants owned by FirstEnergy Generation Corporation.  The project involves all seven units at the W. H. Sammis Generating Station in the Village of Stratton in Jefferson County, and Unit 4 at the Bay Shore Generating Station in Oregon, Ohio in Lucas County.

The Sammis project, which represents $1.1 billion of the total funds approved by OAQDA, is aimed at removing sulfur dioxide from the flue gas stream and creating a solid waste that will be stored in a new disposal facility adjacent to the plant.  The project will entail construction of three scrubber/absorber towers, a new common exhaust stack, a common limestone preparation facility, and the new solid waste disposal facility. 

At the Bay Shore Plant, Unit 4 will be retrofitted with a new Electro-Catalytic Oxidation (ECO) system that was developed and successfully demonstrated by Powerspan Corporation at FirstEnergy’s Burger Station in Shadyside, Ohio.  OAQDA, through its Ohio Coal Development Office, contributed $4.5 million in funding toward ECO development and testing. The ECO multi-pollutant-control technology provides for the high removal of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, and mercury from the flue gas stream at coal-fired power plants.  A total of $155 million was approved by OAQDA for this project.

“We are very pleased that OAQDA’s largest-ever financing inducement will help raise the bar for clean air standards even higher, in this case for northwest and eastern Ohio.  These two projects represent the very core of our mission, and we are proud of all of our efforts statewide since OAQDA’s inception in 1970 to promote and foster improved air quality throughout Ohio,” said Mark R. Shanahan, OAQDA executive director.

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The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority is a non-regulatory government agency created to help Ohio businesses comply with clean air regulations.  With the recent addition of the Ohio Coal Development Office, it also oversees the State of Ohio’s coal research, development, and technology deployment efforts.  Since its creation in 1970, the Authority has provided technical and financial help to hundreds of large and small Ohio businesses, awarding more than $4 billion to finance air quality projects.  For more information about OAQDA and its services, please visit its web site, at www.ohioairquality.org.