Health Impact Assessment pursuant to Consent Decree for Former Coal Fired Power Plant

In the District of Columbia courts a consent decree was entered in 2011 with the District of Columbia Department of the Environment and the Potomac Electric Power Company as parties. The responsible parties were given an 18 month deadline for completion with requirements for public comment and public involvement in the planning process. The decree required a remedial investigation and feasibility study for phase out of power generation activities at the Benning Plant which is located in a low income, predominately African American community. For many years the plant operated as a coal fired plant in a community out of compliance with federal air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter for much of the period. Neighborhood residents have complained for many years of health effects they attributed to the operation of the plant. A community based participatory research team formed and began to conduct a health impact assessment(HIA) to inform the planning process for phasing out the plants operation and cleaning up chemical contaminants at the site. The HIA results will be presented as well as an analysis of the impact on local decisionmaking that the research team has. The presentation will also focus on how results were communicated to the general public, the mechanisms to communicate the results to the public and policymakers and any impact the study has had on local public policies.