Basin Electric Among Leading Toxic Air Polluters

The Environmental Integrity Project finds Basin Electric, source of much of the electricity used in South Dakota, is one of the leading generators of toxic air pollution. Their new report on the dirtiest power plants in the nation finds that, among America's power plants, Basin Electric's Laramie River Station near Wheatland, Wyoming, is the second largest emitter of arsenic, the seventh largest emitter of chromium, eighth largest emitter of nickel, and the sixth largest emitter of selenium. Add arsenic, mercury, chromium, and lead together, and the Laramie River Station is the fourth largest toxic air polluting power plant in the country.

Also smoking up the top ten air polluters lists are Basin Electric's Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, North Dakota (fourth in arsenic emissions). The Leland Olds Station in nearby Stanton, ND, is fourteenth in aresenic emissions. EIP finds notable emissions of chromium and mercury from both North Dakota stations, plus significant nickel from Antelope Valley's smokestacks.

Laramie River's electricity goes mostly to Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. Antelope Valley sends the majority of its electricity to a substation near Huron, South Dakota; Leland Olds sends the majority of its power to Fort Thompson and Watertown.

Basin Electric has invested substantially in wind power, installing 719 megawatts of wind generation capacity in the last decade. That's just a hair under the portion of generating capacity owned by Basin Electric at Laramie River (722 MW out of 1,710 total). Leland Olds generates 669 megawatts; Antelope Valley, 900 MW.

Related: South Dakota's wind power potential of 566 gigawatts could replace Antelope Valley, Leland Olds, Laramie River, and over 600 other comparably sized coal-fired power plants. But the South Dakota Wind Energy Association, now directed by former Basin Electric alternative technologies manager Rob Rebenitsch, warns that South Dakota may miss out on the chance to develop and export its wind power. North Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa have all developed wind power more enthusiastically than South Dakota. Those states thus have many more wind projects ready to claim capacity on new transmission projects. Those states could thus shut South Dakota out of viable wind power development for decades.