Critics of a coal-powered heating plant that serves the University of Wisconsin-Madison say the facility is too old, too polluting and too hazardous to health to merit renewal of its air pollution operating permit without significant changes.
Citizens and environmentalist groups testified before the DNR on Wednesday that the Charter Street Heating Plant, located just south of the UW-Madison campus at 117 N. Charter St., is pumping hazardous smoke into the atmosphere that is both harmful to area residents and contributing to global warming. The plant must be cleaner and more efficient, they said.