Costs of Coal plants and what Muncie, IN is doing to offset these effects in the future.

1. Alyse Hicks
Bio 100

2. Factors and negative impacts
 Ball state’s four Coal fired burners are in need of phasing
out.
 Built in 1941 and 1955 these burners are failing to meet
the federal mercury standards and are decreasing in
efficiency .
 Emitting around 85,000 pounds of CO2 per year
 Coal is a cheaper source for energy compared to most
but its environmental costs exceed the monetary gain by
what the surrounding communities are having to pay in
health bills and clean up bills and taxes just to regulate
the coal plants and its harmful emissions

3. Problem resulting
 Since the 18 th century mean
global temperature has risen
by about 0.8 degrees
 CO2 is 28 times more soluble
in water than is oxygen. Above
critical threshold CO2
becomes toxic for certain
organisms… Excess CO2
reduces the ability of
respiratory pigments to
oxygenate tissues, and makes
body fluids more acidic,
thereby hampering the
production of carbonate hard
parts like shells.

4. Organisms being affected
 Organisms that are being affected the most from CO2
emissions are those living in marine ecosystems.
 Oceans and bodies of water all over the planet act as
carbon sinks absorbing the excess carbon in the
atmosphere and raising the acidity of those waters.
 Rising acidification dissolves calcifications in the water;
coral, limpets, mollusks, their shells are dissolved faster
than they can grow them.
 This can greatly affect our oceans biodiversity and shows
us possible future dilemmas we may face if CO2 levels
continue to rise, possibly affecting human growth.

5. Proposed solutions
 Ball State has begun to replace
its four archaic coal fired burners
with Geothermal energy.
 The project was begun in 2009
and now over half of campus
recieves its energy from the
geothermal installations.
 The project is proposed to cost
around $80 million by its
completion, $15 million more
than it would cost to replace the
coal burners but in the long run
saves $2 million per year in
energy costs and will reduce Ball
state’s CO2 emissions up to
50%.

6. References
 www.countercurrents.org/glikson220210.ht
m
 http://saveourseas.com/articles/damage_to
_marine_ecosystems_as_co2_emissions_r
ise.html
 http://www.skepticalscience.com/true-cost-
of-coal-power.html
 http://www.midwestenergynews.com/tag/in
diana/
 http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/fil
es/Cradle_to_Grave.pdf

7. Disclaimer
 This project is an original work and
I, Alyse Hicks, agree to abide by the
policies of Ball State University
regarding plagiarism.