NRDC, Sierra Club, and Respiratory Health Association v. Illinois Power Resources Generating

For years, the E.D. Edwards coal-fired power plant outside Peoria, Illinois, released illegal and dangerous amounts of soot—an air pollutant associated with premature death, heart attacks, lower cognitive function in children and cognitive decline in the elderly, increased risk of asthma attacks, and exacerbated respiratory infections. The plant’s owners (Illinois Power Resources Generating LLC and parent Vistra Energy Corporation) harmed neighboring communities by failing to invest in modern pollution controls and continuing to rely on equipment built in the 1970s.

To end the plant’s illegal and hazardous pollution, NRDC and its partners, Sierra Club and the Respiratory Health Association, filed a Clean Air Act citizen enforcement suit in 2013. In 2016, the court ruled that the plant had violated its permit and regulatory limits for particulate matter and opacity thousands of times between mid-2008 and mid-2014 alone.

In 2019, the court approved a settlement that requires the E.D. Edwards plant to close by the end of 2022 and provides at least $8.6 million in funding for projects to benefit the Peoria region. Please see our settlement website for more details.