A Comprehensive Approach to Power Plant Toxic Release Inventories

Beginning in 1998, coal-fired and oil-fired power plants will be required to estimate and report their annual mass emissions to the national Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI is a publicly reported inventory of emissions to air, water and land of approximately 600 chemicals designated as “toxic” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This paper reviews the current status of TRI reporting requirements for electric utilities. The recently enhanced version of the EPRI PISCES Model is used to estimate the magnitude of reportable TRI emissions, and their uncertainties, for a variety of typical power plant designs, operating conditions, and fuel choices. The ability of environmental control technologies and plant operating practices to reduce emissions of TRI chemicals also is explored using the PISCES Model.