Our nearly $1 billion investment in the scrubber project is one component of a clean air program which now ensures Constellation Energy's coal-fired power plants will meet all emissions requirements of Maryland's Healthy Air Act, which was signed into law in 2006.

This significant environmental upgrade supports Constellation Energy's environmental stewardship efforts by:

• Reducing Maryland's coal-fired power plant's sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by an estimated 95 percent
• Reducing existing mercury emissions by 90 percent
• Significantly reducing acid gases.

The Brandon Shore scrubber works by spraying a mixture of limestone and water into gases created during the coal combustion process. As sulfur dioxide in the gases comes in contact with the mixture, it is absorbed and neutralized by the limestone to produce gypsum, a useful additive to concrete or for the production of wallboard.

The scrubber project also resulted in the construction of a new emissions stack that produces a visible plume of harmless water vapor emitted as part of the "scrubbing" process. The two existing larger emissions stacks at the Brandon Shores plant have been sealed and capped off and taken out of service but will remain in place.

In addition to the Bandon Shores scrubbers, Constellation Energy's clean air program includes several environmental upgrades at the plant, including the installation of baghouses to remove particulates, as well as sorbent injection technology, which removes mercury and sulfuric acid mist from the plant’s emissions. Constellation Energy also previously installed a selective catalytic reduction system at Brandon Shores, which significantly lowers nitrogen oxide emissions.

Even with scrubber technology, Brandon Shores, as all coal power plants, will still produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Constellation Energy strongly supports actions and policies to address these emissions, including new laws and incentives, energy efficiency, and new investment in the cleanest of energy technologies such as nuclear, wind and solar.

Construction on the scrubber project took three years to complete and included nearly four million man-hours of work from representatives of the Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council.