MONROE - Detroit Edison's Monroe Power Plant is one of the largest coal-burning power plants in the nation - and it continues to be one of the largest ongoing construction employers in Michigan.

The building trades, the Washington Group and Detroit Edison are continuing the nearly decade-long process of installing new pollution control equipment at the 3,200 megawatt plant, which is the sixth largest in the nation. The $700 million project will employ some 600 tradespeople at peak employment this summer, with about 2.5 million man-hours worked through the end of the project in 2008.

Detroit Edison Site Manager Ernie Svaluto said a spring outage at the plant was wrapping up earlier this month, but there's plenty left to do before the new SCR unit is tied in next spring.

"The people here have done an excellent job, the work has been good, productivity has been good, and the safety record has been good," Svaluto said. "It really helps productivity to have a lot of repeat workers here, who get to know the plant and learn from experience."

There are four boilers at the Monroe Power Plant. Over the last several years the building trades have completed the retrofit of Units 1 and 4 with selective catalytic reduction (SCRs) units to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. They are currently installing a new SCR on Unit 3, as well as the new associated ductwork, wiring, piping and stiffening of the plant's iron skeleton working to support the new equipment.

The trades are also installing on this project new FDG (Flue Gas Desulfurization) equipment on Units 3-4 that will remove 97 percent of those boilers' sulfur dioxide emissions. Re-agent preparation, limestone handling, gypsum handling, and water/wastewater pre-treatment systems are also being installed.

This work and similar efforts at fossil-fuel burning power plants around the country is designed to bring the facilities in line with tougher federal pollution standards. And at all the plants, designers have struggled with retrofitting pollution controls into plants that weren't designed to handle the new equipment.

A significant portion of the plant's new ductwork was prefabricated in Onaway, Michigan and in Nova Scotia, and shipped on barges to the Monroe Power Plant. Much of the new equipment has been assembled on site on the ground, as a safety precaution, before being lifted into place. The 1,000-ton capacity Manitowac crane on site has done some heavy lifting: the largest pick being a 305,000-pound SCR catalyst platform.

The Monroe Power Plant's four units were brought on line over a four-year period, with the last unit beginning operation in 1974. By the time DTE Energy completes this work, the plant's footprint will have doubled thanks to the new pollution control equipment.

Washington Group Construction Supt. John Mowrey, a Boilermakers Local 85 member who has worked on and off at the plant for 33 years, said the new pollution control equipment is tested technology that works well.

"Our productivity numbers are up, we're working safely, and there's never been better cooperation between the trades, DTE Energy and the Washington Group," Mowrey said. "They have been excellent to work for."

NEW POLLUTION CONTROL equipment is being installed at the DTE Energy Monroe Power plant. DTE is spending some $700 million on the upgrades, and will employ about 600 Hardhats at the job's peak this summer.

A CRANE IS operated by Randy Vadasy of Operating Engineers Local 324, working at the Monroe Power Plant.