Xcel Energy garbage burners belch out pollutants in Red Wing, Mankato, and La Crosse.

This is Xcel’s Red Wing “steam plant”:  Two 1940s coal burners converted in the 1980s to burn ground-up garbage.  Electricity output is small, around 26 megaWatts.  Emissions are high.

Some partial emissions numbers from the MPCA for these Red Wing burners:

Carbon monoxide  121,399 pounds

Lead                                    69 pounds

NOx                        1,212,168 pounds

PM10                      21,046 pounds

Sulfur dioxide        101,949 pounds

Ammonia                        149 pounds

Hydrochloric

acid                        16,040 pounds

Chromium                     18.11 pounds

Manganese                     20.22 pounds

Red Wing Total                                             1,472,958 pounds

Rough total Mankato                                  1,791,161 pounds

Combined total:  3,264,119  Well over three million pounds of health damaging air pollutants.  Numbers for Xcel’sLa Crosse, WI burner upcoming.