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A nonprofit environmental group has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that a southern Prince George's County power plant has polluted the air by burning cheaper fuel for at least three years. The lawsuit seeks no financial compensation, but requests that regulators work to resolve emission concerns at the plant.

The lawsuit, filed June 25 against parent company Mirant Mid-Atlantic, alleges the company has burned "residual fuel" in some generators at the Chalk Point power plant located near the Calvert County line more than 100 times since 2006, releasing unsafe smoke that can travel up to 248 miles.

"There's a very simple solution to this. We want them to stop," said Jen Peterson, an attorney who filed the lawsuit in Baltimore Federal Court on behalf of the Environmental Integrity Project.

Peterson's group filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a non-profit group based in Montgomery County, as well as three residents who live near the facility at the southern tip of Prince George's.

Plaintiff David Bookbinder, an Accokeek resident who lives 30 miles away from the plant, did not return messages for comment by press time and attempts to reach plaintiffs Nancy and Norton Dodge, a Mechanicsville couple who live seven miles from the plant, were not successful.

The lawsuit also faults the company for not installing dust collectors or other pollution controls to reduce emissions.

The company could clean emissions by installing traps to catch particles in the smoke or by switching to burning cleaner natural gas in place of the residual oil that it used to save money, Peterson said.

"It's essentially bottom-of-the-barrel oil," she said.

The Chalk Point plant is the largest in the state. It has four boilers that burn coal and fuel to generate electric power for the region. Mirant spokeswoman Misty Allen said the plant can generate up to 2,400 megawatts of power, enough to run about 2.4 million homes.

Allen declined to comment about the lawsuit, saying that the company had not yet received a copy. The company has never been cited by the Environmental Protection Agency or state environmental regulators for its practices, Allen said. The company and environmental regulators were notified of the group's intent to sue in January.

The plant typically uses coal in two generators to make electricity, Allen and Peterson said. The two fuel-based boilers only operate at peak times when demand is greatest, usually during the hot summer months when customers use air conditioners and other items that use a lot of electricity.

By using residual fuel, the plant is burning dirty smoke, Peterson said. The complaint cites delivery orders of the residual fuel and EPA monitoring reports that allegedly show that the fuel routinely exceeded acceptable levels for sulfur dioxide, a chemical linked to heart disease and respiratory problems.

The plant was listed as one of the dirtiest in the state by a 2006 Harvard study, Peterson said.

Allen said the company decides which fuel to use on a case-by-case basis for emergencies.

"It's based on the availability of the fuel, and what we have on hand," she said.

The environmental group is focusing on the fuel-burning boilers because they fear they may be used more often in the future as regulators place new restrictions on coal-burning plants, Peterson said.

Allen said Mirant is in the middle of a $1.6 billion upgrade to the group's coal-burning plants to install scrubbers that will filter out sulfur, nitrogen and mercury before they leave the smoke stacks. The measures are expected to be complete by early 2010.

"It's not like we operate them willy-nilly," Allen said.

The case is waiting for Mirant Mid-Atlantic attorneys to file a response.

E-mail Daniel Valentine at dvalentine@gazette.net.