Environmental Partners

RRI Energy's Environmental Partners program offers a unique and proven approach to address some of our nation's most pressing environmental and ecological problems. This approach involves forging partnerships with stakeholders such as governmental agencies, environmental advocacy groups and educational institutions. For every dollar we invest, approximately three additional project dollars are provided through a partner matching funds program.

As we have grown into a national energy provider, the Environmental Partners program has grown as well, forging significant partnerships in key regions across the United States, including California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.

CALIFORNIA

RRI Energy has established a partnership with the Channel Islands Marine Resource Institute (CIMRI) on the Southern California coast. CIMRI partners with a diverse group of entities including government agencies, educational institutions and industry participants to offer environmental education, research, and restoration and conservation opportunities for its surrounding communities.

Because white sea bass populations have declined in recent decades, we help CIMRI and its partners stock this species along the California coast. One such partner is Proteus SeaFarms, located at RRI Energy’s 1,500 MW Ormond Beach Electric Generating Station. Proteus SeaFarms maintains a hatchery and grow-out facility that is vital to this effort.

RRI Energy is also partnering with CIMRI and Proteus SeaFarms in research and stock enhancement of the white abalone in Southern California. White abalone has recently been declared an endangered species in the coastal waters of California. While the known California population of this species is less than 26,000, Proteus SeaFarms has successfully spawned white abalone in captivity and has more than 100,000 juveniles in grow-out tanks. With our help, these animals will be the beginning of a sustained population of white abalone off the coast of Southern California.

RRI Energy also partners with the Organization for Respect and Care for Animals (ORCA) in an effort to save stranded marine mammals along the Southern California coast. ORCA has a long-standing reputation of prompt response and proper handling of stranded marine mammals.

We are currently partnering with the Nature Conservancy in a long-term effort to protect and restore the Santa Clara River Watershed which features the last large, relatively free-flowing river in Southern California and is home to some 22-35 threatened or endangered species.

Additionally, we partner with the Nature Conservancy to remove invasive vegetation on the vital Ormond Beach Wetlands. We are also actively working with the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project to develop a comprehensive wetland restoration plan for the Ormond Beach Wetlands adjacent to our Ormond Beach Electric Generating Station.

We have been partnering with the Ducks Unlimited on a variety of innovative habitat restoration and water quality improvement projects across the United States for more than 10 years. A key element in this partnership has been the restoration of critical waterfowl habitat on the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge in the Sacramento Valley.

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FLORIDA

One of nature’s most beloved animal species, the endangered West Indian manatee, makes its home in waterways throughout peninsular Florida. Over the past 50 years, these large docile creatures have been faced with diminishing habitat largely due to human development projects and boating activities. During the same period, coastal power plants were being built along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, which provide the warm-water refuge areas that manatees require during the winters. However, factors such as new power plant technologies, changing environmental laws and an aging fleet of generation stations could in time eliminate these critical warm-water refuges. RRI is working with a host of natural resource groups in Florida in an attempt to find a solution before this issue becomes a significant problem. A partnership has been established with the Mote Marine Laboratory, the Florida Marine Research Institute, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, the United States Geological Survey, the Sirenia Project and the Wildlife Trust to determine alternate warm-water sites for manatees.

We also partner with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, in a study of manatee biomarkers. This study is part of an ongoing effort among researchers to determine the impacts of cold stress on manatees. Information gleaned from this study will help scientists and natural resource managers make better management decisions relating to the health and well being of the endangered Florida manatee.

For the past nine years RRI Energy has been a sponsor of the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival. This event offers a wide variety of opportunities for local residents and out-of-state visitors to participate in outdoor environmental activities. This festival has grown into one of the premier festivals of its kind in the U.S.

Environmental education is a key component of RRI Energy’s Environmental Partners Program. In 2009 we initiated a partnership with three Brevard County Elementary Schools by providing funds for key environmental programs at each campus. This partnership strengthens additional environmental education efforts we have made at the Enchanted Forest in Titusville and The Environmental Learning Center in Vero Beach.

PENNSYLVANIA

In 2007 RRI Energy initiated a new partnership with the Three Rivers Ecological Research Center, an organization within the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PAFBC), to restore aquatic habitats in western Pennsylvania. This effort focused initially on two important habitat needs in the area. The first project, in close proximity to our Seward and Conemaugh Stations, addressed water quality issues in numerous tributaries of Dark Shade Creek. The second project focused on the streambank stabilization in Buffalo Creek, about 30 minutes west of our Keystone Station.

In 2008, two additional streambank stabilization projects were added to the partnership efforts. The first project focused on a highly eroded shoreline on Montour Run near the Brunot Island Station, and the second is located on Deer Creek near the Cheswick Generating Station where erosion is also threatening stream habitat. RRI Energy continued its support for strategic lime dosing on the Shade Creek Watershed in 2008 as well. In fact, during the fall of 2008 we began to see the fruits of this labor when wild brook trout were restocked in the areas treated with our initial funding.

For 2009, we will continue this partnership with the Three Rivers Ecological Research Center and Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission by providing funding support for fish enhancement projects on the Quemahoning Reservoir, Hinckston Reservoir and Wilmore Reservoir. hese three lakes will be receiving porcupine cribs and rock humps to enhance bottom habitats for native fish populations.

In 2009 we will also provide funding for instream habitat enhancement projects in the Tubmill Creek Watershed and Ninemile Run. In addition to the PAFBC, these projects will involve local watershed organizations and a host of local volunteers.

Additional projects with the Three Rivers Ecological Research Center are planned over the next few years.

Drainage from abandoned coal mines has been a longstanding environmental problem in Pennsylvania and has adversely affected many nearby streams and rivers. RRI Energy became the first corporate partner in a mitigation project designed to improve the water quality and wetlands habitat in the Quemahoning Creek in Somerset County. The goal of this project is to treat the mine discharge prior to entering the creek by utilizing an existing wetland, which has the natural ability to treat pollution. Similarly, we are participating in a project that seeks to return a portion of the lower Yellow Creek in Pennsylvania to a viable trout fishery.

In the RRI Energy Seward repowering project, we took advantage of a unique opportunity to lead the way in the remediation of a major acid mine drainage problem nearby. An abandoned mine shaft across the Conemaugh River from the Seward plant discharges concentrated acid mine drainage high in iron, aluminum and sulfates, all of which are damaging to the environment, into the river. To tackle this problem, we have formed an environmental group of local, regional and state water quality organizations that developed an action plan to neutralize acidic mine drainage with alkaline coal ash. Once the discharge is neutralized, removal of the metals will be possible through passive wetland treatment. The ultimate goal is to fill all empty space in the mine to eliminate the harmful discharge.

RRI Energy recently completed a three-year support effort to stock brown trout in the West Branch of the Susquehannah River with the Old Town Sportsman Association of Clearfield, Penn. During this effort, healthy brown trout fingerlings were stocked in the Clearfield and Curwensville areas. The project goal is to re-establish a sustainable brown trout population in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Our 572-megawatt Shawville electric generating station is located on this section of the river.

RRI Energy also partners with Penn State University in an environmental study of the effect of troposphere ozone on forest health. Those projects involve laboratory and field studies as well as ambient air monitoring of ozone to determine its potential impact on ozone-sensitive species. We are a corporate sponsor of Penn State’s Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center. The focus of the center is to study ambient air quality and the effects of air emissions on the environment.

Since 2000, we have provided nearly $75,000 in grants to Penn State for air quality research. Our funding helps to support five air quality monitoring stations maintained by Penn State in forested areas throughout north-central Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The College of Agricultural Sciences also monitors ozone effects on grapes at Penn State's Fruit Research and Extension Center in Adams County.

A grant of $7,500 to Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences provided support of the college's air quality research and educational programs during the 2006-2007 academic year. As part of our Environmental Partners program, the gift provides base funding for research on the effects of ozone on forest and plant health and helps the college attract additional grant funds from state and federal sources.

Our financial support also has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining the Air Quality Learning and Demonstration Center in The Arboretum at Penn State. The focus of the center is to study ambient air quality and the effects of air emissions on the environment. "Without this support, maintaining the center's activities would be difficult," says Dennis Decoteau, director of the center and professor of horticulture and plant ecosystem health. "As state and federal funds decline, private-sector support such as this is critical to continuing this important work."

We continue to fund a 30-year study performed by key professors from Penn State and Ohio State Universities focusing on the health of forests and floral species that are sensitive to air pollutants. Lichen are of special interest in this study because of their sensitivity to air pollution.

An objective of the study is to better understand the relationship between the implementation of pollution control technologies at power plants and the health of forests and lichen species diversity

We have enhanced an osprey reintroduction program in Pennsylvania at our Portland power plant site along the Delaware River. For nearly two decades, osprey-nesting towers have attracted these large migratory birds to the area every summer. RRI Energy and a local advisory committee coordinated replacement of one of the original towers and the installation of a new tower.

We are partnering with Ducks Unlimited on the Greg Vitale project in Washington County. This project is located on Ten Mile Creek, a tributary of the Mon and Ohio Rivers. The goal of this effort is to improve wildlife habitat and water quality in the watershed.

We have are also involved in the Scott Kucharcik Wetlands Restoration Project in Clearfield, County. This project will provide water quality benefits to the Susquehanna drainage of the Chesapeake Bay as well as crucial wildlife habitat.

We have partnered with Ducks Unlimited on the Buffalo Creek Project in Washington County, Pennsylvania, to restore over 40 acres of vital wetlands and associated uplands on State Game Lands. Numerous other partners were involved as well, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S.D.A. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and the Foundation for California University.

We also partnered with the Clarion Conservation District and the Alliance for Wetlands and Wildlife to restore a 10-acre wetland on the Beaver Creek tributary to the Clarion River.

In 2008 RRI Energy began a multi-year effort with Ducks Unlimited, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Foundation for California University of Pennsylvania to construct 14.7 acres of wetlands and to restore hydrology to 624 acres of scrub-shrub wetlands on the Pymatuning Wildlife Management Area in Crawford County, Penn. This vital management area, located on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, is the largest natural lake and wetlands system in Pennsylvania.

TEXAS

RRI Energy is now partnering with the Ocean Trust, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and a host of local partners to restore tidal flow and native vegetation to the Bahia Grande near Brownsville, Texas. Bahia Grande is a 6,500 acre shallow basin that had been cut off from tidal flow for over 70 years. The site is now part of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Our focus is to provide native vegetation for replanting efforts and to provide funding for construction of critical connection channels throughout the system.

RRI Energy has partnered with the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory in a host of habitat restoration, preservation and education projects for 10 years. The Gulf Coast Bird Observatory is the primary organizer of the nation’s most comprehensive and exciting birding contest called “The Great Texas Birding Classic.” Through our success in the Great Texas Birding Classic, we have been able to direct more than $100,000 to habitat conservation projects along the Texas Coast.

RRI Energy plays an active role in habitat restoration partnerships throughout Galveston Bay through strong relationships with the Galveston Bay Foundation. We have been a Flagship Sponsor of an annual environmental education event hosted by the Galveston Bay Foundation called “Bay Day” for 15 years.

Additionally, for more than 20 years we have been a leader in restoring intertidal marsh habitat, island habitat, and oyster reef habitat throughout the Galveston Bay estuary. RRI Energy has been recognized on four different occasions by the Coastal America program for these valuable environmental partnership efforts.