Kentucky Utilities to Pay $1.4M EPA Fine

Kentucky Utilities’ Mercer County-based Brown Generation Station made some modifications to its plant in 1997.  EPA regulators believe KU should have applied for a state permit before making those changes.  And that permit would have required additional pollution controls.  EPA enforcement chief Adam Kushner says that could have contained hundreds of thousands of tons of emissions.“Had it applied for a permit, and installed pollution controls, we believe that its emissions would have been reduced 30,000 tons per year beyond its current emissions," says Kushner.A Kentucky Utilities spokesperson says the company believed it was following the law when it modified the Brown plant.  But now it will not only pay the $1.4 million dollar civil penalty. It will also spend millions installing pollution controls and three million on other projects that benefit the environment.