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Coal Plants in Michigan

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The five new coal plants proposed to be built in Michigan are projected by NRDC to generate 686,879 tons of contaminated coal waste, including 634 tons of toxic metals. Michigan ranks 10th in waste production expected from new coal plants, and 11th in toxic metals from those plants.

Michigan ranks 20th in the country for contaminated coal waste, with 2,129,700 tons of waste reported to the U.S. Energy Information Administration in 2005. The state also ranks 13th in toxic metals contaminating its coal waste, with 2,524 tons of toxic metals, based on NRDC estimates.

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Statistics for Proposed Plants in Michigan

Plant	County	Estimated tons of coal waste	Estimated tons of toxic metals
Consumers Energy	Bay	210,373	194
Great Lakes	Gratiot	169,656	157
Mid-Michigan	Midland	153,482	142
Wolverine	Presque Isle	135,725	125
Holland	Ottawa	17,644	16

Statistics for Existing Plants in Michigan

Plant	Owner (primary)	County	Tons of waste	Percent of waste disposed	Tons of toxic metals
Monroe (DETED)	Detroit Edison Co	Monroe	603,000	100.0%	838
J H Campbell (CEC)	Consumers Energy Co	Ottawa	305,300	84.8%	270
Belle River	Detroit Edison Co	St Clair	200,000	58.0%	229
St Clair	Detroit Edison Co	St Clair	192,900	69.4%	306
Presque Isle	We Energies	Marquette	146,600	56.0%	188
Trenton Channel	Detroit Edison Co	Wayne	139,000	100.0%	170
Dan E Karn	Consumers Energy Co	Bay	134,700	90.8%	67
B C Cobb	Consumers Energy Co	Muskegon	101,300	100.0%	64
J R Whiting (CEC)	Consumers Energy Co	Monroe	81,000	52.1%	91
J C Weadock	Consumers Energy Co	Bay	77,700	100.0%	166
Escanaba Paper Company	NewPage Holding Corporation	Delta	54,500	100.0%	22
Erickson Station	Lansing City of	Eaton	41,500	61.7%	43
Eckert Station	Lansing City of	Ingham	39,100	23.3%	62
Harbor Beach	Detroit Edison Co	Huron	13,100	100.0%	7

Percent of waste disposed indicates the proportion of contaminated coal waste disposed of in landfills, ponds, or on- or off-site disposal facilities. For detailed information on how each plant reported its waste disposal in 2005, see the detailed data Excel spreadsheet.

Sources: permit applications for new plants, Energy Information Administration data, NRDC estimates. The most recent data available from the EIA is from 2005 and it is possible that operational changes at particular plants will have changed the yearly waste volumes and disposal methods. Click here for detailed glossary of terms and our methodology.

The numbers presented on this and related webpages assume that proposed plants if built would be conventional coal-fired plants. Of the proposed plants included in the national data set, 13 might use gasification, a process that results in a different form of waste, with a much lower environmental risk. Click here for projections that exclude those plants from the overall waste numbers and rankings.

last revised 3/12/2009