Comanche

Owned and operated by Xcel Energy, Inc., the Comanche Power Station is located near Pueblo, Colorado. It is a coal-fired steam-electric generating station with two operating generating units producing a total of 660 megawatts, with a third generating unit expected to go online in late 2009. This will add an additional 750 megawatts of capacity.

The first generating unit came online in November 1973; the second started operation a little over two years later.

The Comanche Power Station primarily serves the Rocky Mountain Steel Mill next door. The mill is in fact Xcel Energy's largest customer; any electric energy not used by Rocky Mountain Steel is distributed to residential and small business customer through Aquila, an energy wholesaler.

Xcel Energy has made several attempts to reduce carbon emissions through the use of filtering systems, low NOx burners and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems. So far, they have been able to reduce pollutants by 99%. The new unit will employ an activated carbon injection system in order to control the release of mercury.

Asbestos Risks

Puerto Rican doctors carried out a study in 2003 that confirmed statements on the part of industrial health and safety experts, who had for many years said that power plants pose some of the highest risks of asbestos exposure of any industry. This study examined the chest x-rays of 1100 power plant workers. Over 1300 of these subjects were found to have “abnormalities” that indicated the early stages of asbestos disease.

Asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) were used as insulation throughout the construction of all types of industrial sites as well as power generating facilities through the early 1980s. ACMs were used in any location where heat, flame, electricity and corrosive chemicals posed a hazard. Over time, these materials began to deteriorate and give off asbestos dust. The fibers were inhaled and ingested by employees, they would also become lodged in hair and clothing. This is how asbestos fibers were introduced into the home, where family members were subjected to secondary exposure.

Mesothelioma is notoriously difficult to diagnose; symptoms are similar to those of many other respiratory diseases, and may not appear for decades following initial exposure to asbestos. For this reason, the disease is not normally diagnosed until its late stages, and mesothelioma prognosis is usually grim.

Former Comanche workers as well as their family members should inform their family doctors about any possible asbestos exposure. New methods are now available that allow pathologists to detect the markers of mesothelioma disease in its earliest stages when it is most treatable.

Given its resistance to heat, flame and electrical current, the naturally occurring fibrous mineral known as asbestos was frequently used within numerous factories, mills, power plants and worksites around the country. While asbestos' strength as an insulator undoubtedly protected people from injury and even death, the unintended consequences of using it were horrible, and thousands of workers contracted serious illness and even died due to inhalation of or other contact with asbestos. The reason for this is that strands of asbestos, when inhaled or ingested, embed themselves into internal organs, leading to debilitating diseases including asbestosis and cancer of the lungs. The most deadly of the asbestos-caused diseases is mesothelioma, which is a form of cancer that involves the cells lining the chest cavity; it is very difficult to treat, and patients seldom live more than two years after being diagnosed.

Employees who work with asbestos today are generally protected from contact due to the extensive body of laws regulating its use, presence at job sites and demolition. Even as late as the 1970s, however, workers without proper safety gear all too often toiled in areas thick with asbestos dust. In addition, employees carried asbestos particles to their homes on their clothes or in their hair when showers were not provided at the company; as a result, the carcinogen also put at risk anyone living with those who worked near asbestos.

Since asbestos-related illnesses such as lung cancer and mesothelioma may not develop until a very long time after asbestos exposure first occurs, those who worked at contaminated sites, as well as family members of such workers, are encouraged to talk about their history of asbestos contact with their physicians regardless of how long ago they worked there.

Sources

Cabrera-Santiago, Manuel et al. “Prevalence of Asbestos-Related Disease Among Electrical Power Generation Workers in Puerto Rico.” Presentation at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, 2007.

“Comanche 3 Power Station Expansion, CO, USA.” Power-Technology.com, 2004. 3 May 2009,
http://www.power-technology.com/projects/comanche/

“Comanche Station Air Emissions.” XcelEnergy.com, 2008.
http://www.xcelenergy.com/Company/About_Energy_and_Rates/Comanche%20Unit%203/Pages/Comanche_Station_Air_Emissions.aspx