environmental facts
                          WHAT'S  A  SCRUBBER?
          Energy and  economy are very  common words  in  today's
     conversations.   There  is a new word--"scrubber"--which
     is  becoming increasingly more common and, at the  same
     time  controversial.  The issue centers around  the means
     of  controlling  sulfur  oxide emissions from plants
     burning high-sulfur  fuels, particularly coal-fired
     electric generating  units.

          The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,  after
     extensive public hearings, determined that scrubbers
     were  a  practical solution to this  problem.  A  number of
     utilities have  installed scrubber  units and have  worked
     diligently to improve  their effectiveness.  The  American
     Electric Power  System,  on the other  hand, is conducting an
     advertising campaign attacking scrubbers  as expensive,
     unreliable and  unnecessary.  Understandably, the  public
     is  perplexed by  these  charges.  To help clear  the air,
     we  have prepared this  fact sheet  which answers  the most
     common  questions asked  about scrubbers.

                               Ann L. Dore,  Director
                           Office of  Public Affairs  (A-107)
         What's a scrubber?

         It's a chemical-mechanical  system that washes  ("scrubs")
    sulfur  oxides and  particulates out  of the stack gases going
    up the. stacks of plants burning  high-sulfur coal  or oil.
    Technically, these are flue gas  desulfurization systems, or
    FGD's  for short, but  "scrubber"  is  a handier tag  to use.

         Does EPA require the use of scrubbers?

         No.  EPA requires only that the national  air quality
    standards be met and  that means  controlling the emissions
    coming  out of smokestacks.  Clean fuels and stack gas treat-
    ment  are equally acceptable.

         How serious is the sulfur oxide problem?

         A  Federal  Power Commission  advisory committee  recently
    reported that failure to meet the air quality  standards for


UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY • WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460

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sulfur oxides could result each year in 6,000 premature  deaths,
20 to 30 million needless days of aggravation for persons
suffering from heart and lung  disorders, and 6 to 10 million
avoidable asthma attacks.

     Are scrubbers the best way to handle the problem?

     Considering the options,  yes.  The easiest solution,  of
course, is to burn fuels with  little or no sulfur but these
are precisely the fuels in shortest supply.   Both natural
gas, our cleanest fuel, and low-sulfur oil are best reserved
for home and commercial heating since it is  much easier  to
control a relatively few large industrial pollution sources
than thousands of small sources.  There is a lot of low-sulfur
coal available but most of it  would have to  come from strip
mines, which have severe environmental drawbacks.  America's
greatest energy resource is deep-mined coal  and most of  it has
a high sulfur content.  In order to make the most of this
energy resource without damaging human health, we need scrubbers

     Can't the sulfur be removed before the  coal is burned?

     Yes, but present techniques are neither efficient nor
economi cal.

     What about tall stacks?  Wouldn't they  disperse pollutants
over such a wide area that the impact on health would be
negligible?

     EPA will not accept the  permanent  use of intermittent
control systems, such as tall  stacks, which  merely disperse
pollutants over a larger area or  release them at varying times
rather than reducing or eliminating them.  There isn't
enough information on pollution dispersion patterns to
enable us to know where these  pollutants would go.  Recent
evidence suggests that loading the atmosphere with sulfur
oxides causes a build-up of sulfates--a pollutant believed
to endanger human health even  at  low levels.  In any event,
if thousands of plants were to resort to this tactic, their
overlapping pollution patterns would cancel  out any benefits
which might be gained by dispersion.  And if the method  can
be used only by a few plants,  who decides which ones get a
free ride on the environment  and which  ones  must pay for
pollution control?

     Who needs scrubbers?

     Most of the sulfur pollutants get  into  the air from
electric generating plants.   Out  of about 1,000 existing
power plants, some  110 coal-fired plants require additional
controls to meet the health-protective  standards for sulfur
oxi des .

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                                -3-

     But do scrubbers work?

     Yes.  This is a relatively new technology and  there
have been, and still are, bugs to be worked out.   However,
over the past year we have had greatly improved performance
by many different operating units.  Today a utility can
decide to install scrubber facilities with full confidence
that they can be made to operate effectively and reliably.

     How effective are today's scrubbers?

     We can reasonably expect 90 percent removal  of sulfur
oxides.  Anything better than that might cost more  than  it's
worth.

     And reliability?

     In 1974 units equipped with scrubbers were available
for utility service about 90 percent of the time.   When  you
consider that all generating units are shut down periodically
for routine maintenance and reductions in consumer  demand,
90 percent availability is excellent.

     Is it true that scrubbers will produce mountains  of  sludge?

     No.  Lime and limestone scrubbing systems do  produce
large quantities of semi-solid sludge and this sludge  must  be
disposed of carefully so that there isn't any adverse  impact
on the environment.  But sludge disposal is not an  insur-
mountable problem.  Wet sludge can be hardened through
chemical reactions to form a dry, solid, largely inert
material which has several uses, the most important of which
is landfill.  Numerous landfill sites are available in the
United States, especially in areas where there has  been
strip mining.  Where geographic location, space availability,
or other considerations make sludge disposal impractical,
alternative scrubber systems can be used.  Regenerable
systems, such as magnesiumoxide and catalytic oxidation,  do
not produce sludge.  Instead, these systems regenerate the
scrubbing agent and produce such valuable materials as
elemental sulfur and sulfuric acid.

     How many scrubbers do we have now?

     By the end of 1974 twenty-two units will be in service.
Companies plan to start 10 more units in 1975, 12  units  in
1976, and 19 units in 1977.  Another 30 units will  begin
operation in 1978 or 1979, or on dates not known today.
Forty-seven of these projected units are to be installed  in
new plants and their start-up dates are tied to plant
construction.

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      How much do scrubbers cost?

      Cost varies depending on the type  and  size  of the unit
 but  they are expensive.  For example, Philadelphia Electric
 Company  will pay about $68 million  to install  scrubbers on
 three of its generating units.

      Can we afford such an expense  at this  time?

      Unless we close the facility producing the  pollution,
 there is no way we can avoid paying  substantial  costs one
 way  or another.  Even after taking  pollution control  costs
 in  account, using high sulfur coal  can  be  far less expensive
 than relying on imported low-sulfur  oil.   If high-sulfur
 fuels are burned, our choice is  between paying for pollution
 control  or for the consequences  of  breathing bad aii—illness
 and  shortened lives, higher medical  bills,  lost  wages and
 property damage.  EPA research  indicates  that sulfur oxides
 and  particulates cause $11.2 billion a  year in measurable
"damage,  compared with annual costs  of less  than  half that
 amount to control it.  EPA believes  that  it is better and
 cheaper to pay for the ounce of  prevention  than  the pound of
 cure.
 October 1974
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