Oregon Public Broadcasting

Several environmental groups banded together Tuesday to file a lawsuit in federal court against a coal-fired plant in the Columbia River Gorge.

The groups say the Boardman plant is violating the Clean Air Act by releasing harmful amounts of mercury and smog.

Portland General Electric operates the plant. Officials at Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality say they’re working with the power company.

They say new air scrubbers will be installed on the plant in the next six to ten years. But Michael Lang with the Friends of the Columbia Gorge says that will extend the life of the plant.

Michael Lang: "If pollution control devices are installed in the Boardman plant it’s likely that the utility company with that investment will want to operate that plant well into the middle of this century. Is that where we want to go? We need to have that policy debate."

Lang hopes the lawsuit will force the plant operators to either shut the plant down or update it with millions of dollars of new filtering equipment.