EPA sues Pa. Homer City coal plant on air violations

* EPA says prior owners modified plant in 1990s

* EPA seeking monetary penalties

NEW YORK Jan 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday filed a Clean Air Act complaint on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against the owners of the 1,884-megawatt Homer City coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania.

The complaint named subsidiaries of the plant's current owner, Rosemead, California-based Edison International's (EIX.N) Edison Mission Group unit, which bought the plant in 1999, and prior owners Pennsylvania Electric Co, now a unit of FirstEnergy Corp (FE.N), of Akron, Ohio, and New York State Electric & Gas Corp, now a unit of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC).

"The Clean Air Act was intended by Congress to protect the public from air pollution, including pollution from large sources of emissions like coal-fired power plants," Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said in the release.

"We are taking this step to protect the quality of the air people breathe not only in Homer City, but also in the communities that are located downwind of this power plant," Giles said.

According to the complaint, beginning in 1990, the EPA said the plant owners violated the Clean Air Act New Source Review requirements by making major modifications to the boiler and operating without appropriate permits.

New Source Review requires industry to undergo an EPA review if they propose either building a new facility or any modification to existing facilities that would create a "significant increase" of a regulated pollutant.

New Source Review however allows for routine maintenance.

In past EPA New Source Review lawsuits, generating companies have usually argued that their actions were simply routine maintenance and not major modifications that required EPA review.

EDISON MISSION INVESTS IN PLANT

Officials at Edison Mission were not immediately available for comment but in other reports said much of the activity cited in the complaint occurred before the company purchased the plant. Edison Mission also said that since they bought the plant in 1999, the company has invested about $300 million to reduce emissions.

A spokeswoman at FirstEnergy said the company did not own the plant now and noted it was sold by the Pennsylvania Electric subsidiary of GPU Energy a couple years before FirstEnergy bought GPU in 2001.

Officials at Iberdrola's NYSEG were not immediately available for comment.

When modifying their plants, New Source Review requires energy companies to install the best available pollution control technologies to reduce sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, among other things, the EPA said.

The government said it wants the defendants to comply with the Clean Air Act requirements and is seeking a monetary penalty.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) can harm people who suffer from asthma or bronchitis and helps form acid rain. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Marguerita Choy)