Federal Gov't Sues Rockville Centre Over Power Plant Emissions

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY — The federal government is filing a lawsuit against the Village of Rockville Centre and its power plant, which the government says does not comply with federal emissions standards. The two parties are also entering into an agreement that requires the village to get rid of its high-emissions generators.

The lawsuit was announced on Thursday by Seth D. DuCharme, acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The suit is over the village's failure to comply with federal emissions standards for its generators, which make too much particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxide (NOx).

Rockville Centre is one of only two villages in Nassau County that operates its own power plant. The village's 33-megawatt plant runs primarily on diesel engines, and is used mainly in the summer to meet high electricity demands.

The village and the federal government also entered into a Consent Judgement that will require the village to retire its old engines and implement new operational practices and technologies to reduce the PM and NOx emissions. The village will also have to pay a $110,000 penalty and perform other measures to bring its power plant into compliance with the Clean Air Act.

“The United States brought this action to ensure that the Village of Rockville Centre
meets its obligation to protect our air quality by instituting stronger emission control practices at
its power plant,” DuCharme said. “The settlement enforces specific and appropriate emission limits that are critical to mitigating human exposure to particulate matter, which is potentially harmful to our health."

Since at least 2009, the village's power plant has exceeded PM and NOx limits under the Clean Air Act. Previous enforcement efforts caused Rockville Centre to bring its PM emissions into compliance in December 2018. But the village continued to violate the NOx limits. The Consent Judgement will require the village to comply with the NOx limits by Dec. 31, 2021.

As part of the settlement, Rockville Centre has permanently retired its three most-polluting
engines. The village will also reclassify certain engines to limit their use, which will produce significant emissions reductions. Rockville Centre will also increase its capacity to import electricity, thereby reducing the load on its power plant.

The Consent Agreement also requires that the village install and operate a continuous emissions monitoring system on all non-emergency engines, and perform periodic maintenance on engines.

Eli Eilbott, the village's attorney, said that the filing of the suit was standard procedure.

"The village is pleased with the final terms and conditions of the settlement, under which the village does not admit any of the allegations set forth in the complaint and the village agrees to implement various measures to improve the performance of its power plant and increase the amount of power it can ‘import’ from the interstate power grid, which in turn is expected to reduce the need to run the power plant to meet customer electricity demand,” he said in a statement to Patch.