ARIPPA WEB SITE

1. ARIPPA WEB SITE

2. ARIPPA WEB SITE

3. ARIPPA is a not-for-profit trade association comprising thirteen independent power producers in Pennsylvania that generate approximately 831 megawatts of electricity by using environmentally-friendly Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler technology to burn coal mining refuse.Hundreds of millions of tons of unusable coal mining wastes (called "culm" in the eastern Pennsylvania anthracite region and "gob" or "bony" in the western Pennsylvania and West Virginia bituminous coal mining regions) have long imposed an environmental burden on the land.Now, through the use of CFB technology, this "coal waste" is converted into electricity in an environmentally responsible way. Moreover, the unsightly refuse piles and the problems associated with them are gradually disappearing.At the same time, thousands of acres of land are being reclaimed for productive use and turned into wildlife habitat or into future development sites.

4. Independent Power The Wheelabrator Frackville CogenerationFacility (pictured) is typical of the sizeand layout of ARIPPA member plants The modern era of independent power production began in the 1970s with oil embargoes of that time prompting a search for ways to reduce dependence on foreign oil in the production of electricity. • Long lines at gasoline stations and the rapid rise in prices for home heating oil and electricity forced the recognition that petroleum is a finite commodity. • The U.S. Congress, intent on reducing national dependence on foreign oil, sought to lessen its use in generating electricity through encouraging the use of alternative fuels (waste, wood, biomass, wind, solar, geothermal). The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) was put into law in 1978. • PURPA essentially did two things: • 1. It compelled franchised electrical utility monopolies to allow non-utility generators to connect to the transmission system; and • 2. It obliged utilities to buy the power generated by these non-utility operators at a price equal to the cost that the utilities would have incurred in building power plants of their own. • This "avoided cost" mandate proved instrumental in encouraging developers to invest in the new technology needed to find ways to burn the risky "alternative" fuels. Today, a vibrant, independent power production industry exists largely thanks to PURPA.

5. Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion • At the time that Congress was considering the merits of creating an alternative power production industry to compete with franchised utilities, a new boiler technology known as "Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion" was under development in the United States and Europe. • The new technology proved capable of burning fuels of substantially lower "heating value" (in terms of carbon convertible to heat energy expressed in British Thermal Units or BTUs) than the types of boilers typically used by the large utilities to burn regular coal. • Simply put, by suspending fuel in air it could be ignited and would swirl around like a fluid — hence the "fluidized bed" part of the name. By circulating the burning fuel in a tall boiler-furnace until all of the available carbon was consumed, coal waste products could be used that had never been considered as useful fuel prior to the development of CFBs. • Today, there are 14 plants burning coal mining refuse in CFBs in Pennsylvania, three in West Virginia and several plants burning coal, agricultural waste and wood in California.

6. What is coal refuse? • Coal refuse is the low BTU-value waste material remaining from the coal mining process that was simply discarded by mining companies for more than 150 years - from the time mining first began in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s through the late 1970s. • Coal refuse consists primarily of rock, with some attached carbon material that was unable to be separated from the rock. This material was heaped in refuse piles all through Pennsylvania's coal regions until laws were enacted in the late 1970s that, for the first time, required the coal companies to reclaim the sites that they mined. By the time that these laws were enacted, upwards of 2.4 billion tons of coal refuse had been discarded and abandoned in Pennsylvania. • No one is legally responsible to reclaim the coal refuse that was discarded before the enactment of the state and federal laws in the 1970s. • Until the commercial development of the circulating fluidized bed boiler, there was no use for this low BTU-value material. Now this material can be put to good use in the production of clean energy. • Since the late 1980s, Pennsylvania's waste coal plants have removed over 100 million tons of polluting coal refuse from the environment and have reclaimed over 3,800 acres of abandoned mine lands at no cost to taxpayers

7. What does a coal refuse pile look like? • The Nanty Glo East pile is located along Route 271 in Cambria County, entering Nanty Glo from the South. The pile is one of three abandoned refuse piles located along the South Branch of the Blacklick Creek in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. • The other two piles, Revloc and Nanty Glo West, currently are being reclaimed by Ebensburg Power Company, resulting in dramatic improvements to the water quality of the South Branch of the Blacklick Creek, which is a tributary to the Susquehanna River. • Ebensburg Power Company has plans to reclaim the Nanty Glo East pile, which contains about 2.5 million tons of refuse over a 35 acre site and was deposited between 1917 and 1945. When reclamation of Nanty Glo East is completed, Ebensburg will have removed the three largest sources of acid mine runoff into the South Branch.

8. The Legacy of Coal • For generations, coal was the mainstay of Pennsylvania's economy. Legions of miners once tunneled beneath the earth and strip mined the hills and valleys to bring forth the black diamonds that fueled America's growth. The raw hands of breaker boys sorted coal and discarded waste leaving mountains of unwanted coal spoil known as culm, gob, or boney. The legacy of coal has led to thousands of acres of abandoned strip mines, more than a billion tons of mine refuse, and miles of watersheds degraded by acidic runoff. • Abandoned coal mines and mine refuse piles generate many adverse impacts upon surrounding land and water: concentrated levels of acid mine drainage are released into local waterways; unstable waste piles may collapse and threaten the safety of nearby communities; the scenic and recreational quality of the landscape is ruined.

9. From Refuse to Resource • The reclamation efforts of ARIPPA members proceed in parallel with the removal of unsightly piles of coal waste. • Thanks to circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler technology, the mine refuse of yesterday is available as a useful fuel today. More than a dozen power plants in Pennsylvania and West Virginia use CFB boilers to consume millions of tons of culm and gob as fuel each year. These independent power plants generate approximately 10,000 gigawatt-hours of much-needed electricity annually. • Coal waste fuels ARIPPA boilers. Ash from the combustion process is used to backfill abandoned pits. This material is a mixture of fly ash, bottom ash, and limestone. The spent limestone renders the pH of the ash to levels ranging from 9 to 10. This material is graded, compacted, and then covered by topsoil and replanted with appropriate vegetation to finish the process. • The reclamation process reduces the amount of acid mine drainage and acidic runoff to groundwater, streams, and rivers. The new vegetative cover on reclaimed lands helps reduce erosion and prevent further exposure of pollutants to the soil. Safety concerns are eliminated. Uncontrolled fires are prevented. Reclaimed areas can be dedicated to new productive uses. • Hundreds of acres of abandoned stripping pits have been filled with the coal ash byproduct from ARIPPA member plants, saving state government millions of dollars in abandoned mine reclamation expense and acid mine water clean-up costs.