FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   ENR
NOVEMBER, 15, 1994                                            (202)616-2765
                                                         TDD (202) 514-1888

            OHIO POWER PLANT AGREES TO ACHIEVE COMPLIANCE WITH
                  WEST VIRGINIA STATE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

     In a settlement announced today by the Department of Justice
and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ohio Power Plant,
the owner and operator of the Kammer Power Plant, a coal-fired
electrical power plant in Moundsville, West Virginia, agreed to
reduce its sulfur dioxide emissions to compliance levels in less
than one year.  
     EPA estimates that the Kammer Power Plant discharged about
80,000 to 100,000 tons each year of sulfur dioxide over the West
Virginia State Implementation Plant (SIP) emission limitation
since at least 1976.     
     The settlement, in the form of a partial consent decree,
resolves the claim for injunctive relief in the U. S. complaint
against Ohio Power, filed today in the U.S. District Court in
Wheeling, West Virginia.  
     The settlement specifically reserves the government's claim
in its complaint for a civil penalty for alleged past violations
of the Clean Air Act.
     Kammer provides electric power from its three coal-fired
boilers primarily to one customer, the Ormet aluminum smelter in
Hannibal, Ohio.  Those boilers emit air pollutants, including
sulfur dioxide, from a single 900-foot smoke stack.  Since
approximately 1976, the Kammer facility has been subject to the
West Virginia SIP, which establishes a sulfur dioxide emission
limitation of 2.7 pounds per million BTU ("lbs/mmBTU") design
heat input per hour unit.  
     In a partial consent decree lodged today in the U.S.
District Court in Wheeling, Ohio Power agreed to comply fully
with the West Virginia SIP limitation for sulfur dioxide by
September 1, 1995.  In the interim, Ohio Power agreed to reduce
its sulfur dioxide emissions immediately and to comply with a
limitation of 6.5 lbs/mmBTU beginning on January 1, 1995.  Ohio
Power also agreed to install and operate a sulfur dioxide
continuous emission monitoring system and to report regularly to
EPA on the status and progress of its compliance activities.  
     "Today's settlement demonstrates how a cleaner environment
can be achieved in a relatively short time frame, without
protracted litigation, when the regulated community works
together with the government to implement a reasonable compliance
schedule," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for
Environment and Natural Resources.  
     The partial consent decree is open to a 30-day public 
comment period prior to final entry.
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