Leland Olds Station

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Leland Olds Station is an operating power station of at least 656-megawatts (MW) in Stanton, Mercer, North Dakota, United States.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Plant name Location Coordinates (WGS 84)
Leland Olds Station Stanton, Mercer, North Dakota, United States 47.28105, -101.320469 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the power station.

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Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):

  • Unit 1, Unit 2: 47.28105, -101.320469

Project Details

Table 2: Unit-level details

Unit name Status Fuel(s) Capacity (MW) Technology Start year
Unit 1 operating coal: lignite 216 subcritical 1966
Unit 2 operating coal: lignite 440 subcritical 1975

Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details

Unit name Owner Parent
Unit 1 Basin Electric Power Cooperative [100%] Basin Electric Power Cooperative [100.0%]
Unit 2 Basin Electric Power Cooperative [100%] Basin Electric Power Cooperative [100.0%]

Background

In June 2024, an initial ruling by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission judge rebuked the Basin Electric Cooperative for "failing to conduct any serious, expertise-based comparison of the coal units’ prospective costs with the all-in costs of alternative generation portfolios."[1] The ruling supported arguments by the Sierra Club, which said that Basin had "acted imprudently by spending tens of millions of dollars on upgrades at the Laramie River and Leland Olds coal-fired power plants to comply with environmental rules without first evaluating whether it was more cost-effective for ratepayers to commit to retire both plants in the 2020s instead."[2]

Emissions Data

  • 2006 CO2 Emissions: 4,808,205 tons
  • 2006 SO2 Emissions: 40,027 tons
  • 2006 SO2 Emissions per MWh:
  • 2006 NOx Emissions: 9,429 tons
  • 2005 Mercury Emissions: 340 lb.

Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Leland Olds Station

n 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[3] The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma-related episodes and asthma-related emergency room visits, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, peneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution is formed from a combination of soot, acid droplets, and metals formed from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and soot. Among those particles, the most dangerous are the smallest (smaller than 2.5 microns), which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly children, and those with respiratory disease. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. The table below estimates the death and illness attributable to Leland Olds Station. Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[4]

Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Leland Olds Station

Type of Impact Annual Incidence Valuation
Deaths 26 $190,000,000
Heart attacks 40 $4,400,000
Asthma attacks 440 $23,000
Hospital admissions 19 $440,000
Chronic bronchitis 16 $7,100,000
Asthma ER visits 26 $10,000

Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011

Coal Waste Sites

Leland Olds ranked 19th on list of most polluting power plants in terms of coal waste

In January 2009, Sue Sturgis of the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal combustion waste (CCW) stored in surface impoundments like the one involved in the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant coal ash spill.[5] The data came from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for 2006, the most recent year available.[6]

Leland Olds Station ranked number 19 on the list, with 1,937,821 pounds of coal combustion waste released to surface impoundments in 2006.[5]

Coal Ash Waste and Groundwater Contamination at Leland Olds

In August 2010 a study released by the Environmental Integrity Project, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice reported that North Dakota, along with 34 states, had significant groundwater contamination from coal ash that is not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report, in an attempt to pressure the EPA to regulate coal ash, noted that most states do not monitor drinking water contamination levels near waste disposal sites.[7] The report mentioned North Dakota's Antelope Valley Station and Leland Olds Station as sites that have groundwater contamination due to coal ash waste.[8]

Articles and Resources

References

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.