Report Identifies FPL’s Manatee Power Plant As Hot Spot For Toxic Emissions: ProPublica

PARRISH, FL — Florida Power & Light’s Manatee Power Plant was included in a detailed map of cancer-causing industrial air pollution in the United States that was compiled by ProPublica.

The nonprofit newsroom’s analysis identified 1,000 toxic hot spots across the country, including the FPL plant in Parrish, “and how much the chemicals they unleash could be elevating cancer risk in their communities,” according to the report.

Using five years of modeled Environmental Protection Agency data, ProPublica calculated the estimated cancer risk near each hot spot included on the list. The report found that about 250,000 people living in areas around these hot spots across the U.S. could be “exposed to levels of excess cancer risk that the EPA deems unacceptable.”

At FPL’s Parrish power plant, the report found that three chemicals were emitted from 2014 to 2018: polycyclic aromatic compounds, naphthalene and benzo(g,h,i)perylene.

There’s “an estimated excess lifetime cancer risk from industrial sources of about 1 in 260,” which is 39 times the EPA’s acceptable risk, at the plant, ProPublica said. The news outlet found that the power plant “contributes about 100 (percent) of the estimated excess cancer risk here.”

During the five years included in the report, that excess risk has been as low as 1 in 1 million and as high as 1 in 52. In 2018, the final year included in the report, the risk was 1 in 7,900.

Over the five years ProPublica analyzed, the excess risk here has ranged from as low as less than 1 in 1 million to as high as 1 in 52. In 2018, the risk was 1 in 7,900.

In a comment provided to ProPublica, FPL said, “Some of the data submitted to the EPA as a part of the Toxics Release Inventory reflects emissions that took place at the FPL Manatee Power Plant facility but were not emissions from power generation activities. The increase in polycyclic aromatic compounds reflects fugitive emissions associated with road paving that took place at the generation facility as a part of facility maintenance. The emissions from the power plant stacks have been consistently one-third of a pound or less.”

Lisa Paul, an FPL spokesperson, told Patch, “The increase in polycyclic aromatic compounds reflects routine road paving that took place on the generation facility’s property as a part of facility maintenance. To be clear, the power plant operates on clean, American-produced natural gas.”

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She added, “The compound that they refer to is not anything used in any of our plants or any of our generation activities.”

Paul said a road-paving project was completed on the power plant’s property in 2017 and 2018, right before an increase in toxic emissions was noted at the site.

When asked if other FPL sites around the state that completed similar road-paving projects also saw a jump in toxic emissions, she said she wasn’t sure and would seek out that information.

The Manatee Power Plant, built in the 1970s, is in compliance with all state and federal certifications and permits, Paul added. FPL provides a monthly online report on fuel use data for all power-generating units to the Florida Public Service Commission.

The company also has a “steadfast commitment to clean energy and our environment,” she said. FPL operates three solar power plants in Manatee County and recently commissioned the world’s largest solar-powered battery system, which is projected to eliminate about 1 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.