Kraft Power Plant

The Kraft Power Plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia is owned and operated by Georgia Power. It is a primarily coal-fired facility with a generative capacity of 281 kilowatts.

History

The Kraft Power Plant came online in 1958. Built by the Savannah Electric and Power Company, it was designed to need the increased demand that came with the introduction of air conditioners in many area homes throughout this normally hot and humid region. During its first fourteen years of operation, three additional units were added. The three oldest units are coal-fired, while the newest one can be fueled with oil or natural gas.

In 1988, Savannah Electric and Power was taken over by the Atlanta-based Southern Company. During the 1990s, the units were all tested in order to determine the feasibility of using wood waste products. Although these tests were successful, fossil fuels continue to be more economical.

Environmental Issues

The National Resources Defense Council reports that Kraft generates 50,000 tons of toxic waste each year; approximately 0.39% of this waste is in the form of toxic metals. All of this waste goes to local landfills. In addition, particulate waste released into the air and water includes barium, lead, manganese and mercury.

Asbestos

Asbestos illnesses have long been suspected to be a serious work-related hazard for power plant workers. Strong evidence to this was published in 2007. It described a clinical study by a Puerto Rican medical research team, who examined chest x-rays from 1100 such workers. 13% of the x-rays showed “abnormalities” indicative of asbestos disease.

The dangers of asbestos were well known in the boardrooms of the corporations that manufactured and marketing asbestos and asbestos products. However, they kept this a well-guarded secret for four decades until written evidence of the conspiracy was discovered in 1977.

In power generation plants, machinery that includes generators, boilers and turbine combustion engines as well as thermal control devices have all been insulated with asbestos, particularly the “blue” crocidolite variety. This type of asbestos is a very efficient electrical insulator; it is also strongly implicated in the development of mesothelioma and other asbestos cancers. Such asbestos-containing materials were also used in fire doors, wallboard, wall insulation, electrical cloth, junction boxes and pipe and conduit lagging.

Today, there are strict EPA and OSHA regulations to worker protection as well as the handling of asbestos in general. Violators are subject to fines that can exceed $250,000 in addition to imprisonment for up to five years.

Asbestos diseases can take as long as fifty to sixty years to become apparent, at which time the disease is usually far advanced. However, thanks to new diagnostic methods, today's pathologists can detect the early “markers” of asbestos cancer. Former power plant employees should discuss asbestos exposure with their family doctor and get frequent checkups as early detection leads to the most positive mesothelioma prognosis.

With its high resistance to transferring heat and electricity, the mineral asbestos was used in many factories, mills, power plants and worksites all over the US. Although using asbestos was generally considered a way to save lives, it sadly often had the opposite effect: asbestos exposure associated with work has resulted in illness and death for far too many employees. The disorders caused by asbestos include pleural plaques and lung cancer; the largest risk of contracting these conditions occurs when asbestos-containing products become friable, releasing particles into the air where they are available to inhale or ingest. Also, workplace exposure to asbestos can lead to the deadly cancer called mesothelioma, which affects the mesothelium, the tissue that lines the chest cavity (pleural mesothelioma) or the abdominal cavity (peritoneal mesothelioma).

Because science has demonstrated the relationship between being exposed to asbestos and illnesses such as lung cancer, present-day laborers are protected by health and safety statutes that prescribe how asbestos is to be handled. Even up to the last part of the 20th century, though, laborers all too often were expected to operate in spaces in which air filled with asbestos particles was not filtered; in many cases, the dangers posed by asbestos inhalation were not explained. Furthermore, if workplaces did not provide facilities to wash off asbestos fibers, employees took asbestos fibers home with them in their clothes and hair, thereby exposing spouses to the risk of asbestos-related diseases.

Diseases such as mesothelioma disease frequently take a very long time to develop, and the signs of these illnesses can be difficult to distinguish from those of other conditions, so men and women who worked at these jobsites at any time in the past, as well as family members of such workers, are encouraged to speak with their physicians about their history of asbestos exposure.

Sources

Bowker, Michael. Fatal Deception. (New York: Touchstone, 2003)

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.

National Resources Defense Council.
www.nrdc.org/energy/coalwaste/GA.asp

Southern Company.
http://www.southerncompany.com/suppliers/gapower.htm