The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) commissioner has made a preliminary determination to reissue a permit for a term of approximately five years for the Minnesota Power Taconite Harbor Energy Center in Schroeder.
The current permit was first issued December 22, 2005, and reissued on November 30, 2010.
The public has until Sept. 26, 2018 to send comments to the MPCA about the permit.
Currently, the plant is idled and unstaffed. However, environmental compliance inspections are still conducted on an at-least weekly basis.
There are three formal procedures for public participation in the MPCA’s consideration of this matter. Interested parties may submit written comments on the draft permit; petition the MPCA to hold a public informational meeting; or petition the MPCA to hold a contested case hearing.
Comments sent through the mail or email must contain the permit application or draft permit and include specific references to the draft permit you believe should be changed.
A draft permit and fact sheet are available for review on the MPCA Public Notice webpage at www.pca.state.mn.us/publicnotices or can be received from Danielle.drussell@state.mn.us
Some history
Due to the rising cost of coal and the decrease in price of natural gas, Minnesota Power decided it could no longer afford to run the coal-fired steam electric generating power plant and idled it in the fall of 2016.
Opened in 1958, Taconite Harbor long provided power to the iron mines on the Range. When all three units were running, Taconite Harbor produced 225 megawatts, about 10 percent of the company’s electrical generation output.
Minnesota Power purchased Taconite Harbor Energy Center from LTV mining in 2001.
From 2007 to 2008 the company spent over $50 million to retrofit units 1&2 with new environmental emission controls. Unit 3 was taken off line on June 1, 2015, after it was determined that the company couldn’t afford to upgrade the unit’s emissions controls following newer EPA emission rules that drove the costs up.
All told, Minnesota Power put more than $100 million into the power plant over the 15 years it operated it.
Minnesota Power plans to keep Taconite Harbor Energy Center idled until 2020, which means if they need to, they can restart it and generate as much as 150 megawatts of electricity. Should the plant not be restarted, the plan is to remove or re-purpose the plant.
A group was formed in 2016 to look at new uses for the plant. The Taconite Harbor Community Advisory Panel (CAP) met several times in an effort to come up with a solution that will retain some kind of business—and jobs—at the site once the power plant is gone. It’s not known if the group has met in the last year, or even if it exists at this time.
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