Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC announced Thursday that it has informed the Maryland Public Service Commission that it will not use any water from the Patuxent and Patapsco aquifers to operate scrubbers being constructed at Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC’s Morgantown Generating Station.
This decision ensures that groundwater is conserved for residential use and that the scrubber project remains on track to be operable by 2010 in compliance with the Maryland Healthy Air Act.
“Our main obligation is to ensure that the water source for this important environmental project does not have an impact on groundwater,” said Bob Driscoll, CEO of Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC.
“We had been considering using treated effluent from the Mattawoman and Town of LaPlata waste water treatment plants to further the vision of Charles County developing an effluent distribution system for industrial and other appropriate applications,” Driscoll said. “However, we have concluded that we must use river water to ensure that we can comply with our mandatory deadline to install the scrubber and to ensure that we can keep it running without ever having to rely on ground water,” he said.
Mirant is installing scrubbers at its Morgantown plant to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide up to 98 percent by 2010 as required by the state’s Healthy Air Act.