An agreement finalized Monday between UW-Madison, the state and the Sierra Club requires the Charter Street Heating Plant to immediately reduce fuel emissions by 15 percent and re-evaluate alternative energy sources to avoid termination.
The plant's emission reductions will result in a $1 to $3 million increase in university expenses to continue heating over 300 campus buildings, according to Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities at UW-Madison.
The agreement between the Sierra Club, Wisconsin Department of Administration and representatives of UW-Madison and the UW System stems from a ruling by District Judge John Shabaz Nov. 7, stating the plant was in violation of the Clean Air Act for modifying coal boilers without obtaining proper pollution permits.
According to Jennifer Feyerherm, coordinator of the Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign at the Sierra Club, the Charter Street plant is the second largest source of global warming pollution in Wisconsin.
Something needs to be done right away to start cutting pollution, because it should have been reduced a long time ago,"" she said.
Feyerherm said there is no safe level of the fine-particle pollution emitted by the plant.
""For those of us that breathe here in Madison, you see the health effects from coal-fired power plants within 30 miles of the plant,"" she said.
""On days that air pollution levels are high, we see more frequent, more severe and more deadly asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes.""
Fish said teams have been working for years to try and put together plans to make the Charter Street plant cleaner and more efficient, while at the same time equally as reliable.
""There's no question about it; if you don't burn 15 percent of the coal at Charter Street, that's almost 20,000 tons of coal less burned every year,"" Fish said.
""This settlement gives us some immediate reductions in air emissions, and also gives us a process where we can plan with the state how to make those investments in Charter Street so it really becomes a 21st century plant.""
Feyerherm said there were better ways to provide heat for the university, including looking at solar-thermal heating systems, combined heat and power systems or co-generation.
Fish said the university would be looking into more efficient boilers that would allow the burning of more biomass for fuel.
He also noted that UW-Madison is one of three national centers for bio-energy research, and said the Charter Street plant could possibly serve as a commercial test zone for alternative bio-fuels.
As part of the agreement, UW-Madison will join with the Sierra Club to promote an energy conservation campaign that includes automatic computer shutdown and comprehensive recycling, among other things.
According to Feyerherm, noncompliance to the settlement could lead to the coal plant being shut down.
""The decree lays out an enforceable time line that is going to make [the university] look at options that will bring them into compliance with the permit they should have gotten in the first place,"" she said.
""The bottom line is we have to either clean up the old plant that's there, or flat-out retire it.
