Air | Climate | Land | Water | Customer Programs

Vectren: Comprehensive Environmental Approach Reaping Benefits

From clean air to clean water to clean land, Vectren Corporation takes environmental responsibility to heart. Headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, Vectren is an energy and applied technology holding company that serves gas and electricity to nearly one million customers in Indiana and west central Ohio.

Over the last several years, Vectren’s electric generation system has become one of the most environmentally friendly in the Midwest. The company continues to invest in required equipment to further reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide, and mercury emissions. By 2010, Vectren will have exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deadlines with fully operational SO2 emissions-control equipment installed on 100 percent of Vectren’s coal-powered units. As an added benefit, the pollution controls responsible for removing an average of 96 percent of the SO2 from the flue gas also removes a significant portion of mercury before exiting the stack.

Vectren’s focus on environmental stewardship goes beyond its electric generation plants. In 1999, Vectren was the first utility in Indiana to enroll former manufactured gas plant (MGP) sites in the state's voluntary remediation program. An MGP is an industrial facility at which gas was produced from coal, oil and other feedstocks. Most of these plants have been closed for at least 50 years, and in some cases over 100 years.

To date, Vectren has completed remedial activities at eight of the original 26 sites enrolled in the voluntary remediation program. Vectren recently completed a $2 million clean up of the former manufactured gas plant site located in Terre Haute, Indiana. That location, along the Wabash River, is now the site of Vectren's new service center for the Terre Haute region. In 2004, Vectren added an additional five former manufactured gas plant sites located in southwestern Indiana to the voluntary remediation program.

Early in 1999, Vectren purchased 1,100 acres of river bottomland along the Wabash River in Gibson County. The property had been cultivated historically for agricultural purposes, but crops were frequently flooded due to its immediate proximity to the river. Vectren purchased the property and placed a permanent conservation easement on it. The land was then enrolled in the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Wetlands Reserve Program. To date, Vectren has planted 120,000 trees and 14,000 native shrubs on the Gibson County property to help absorb greenhouse gases.  Vectren has also constructed hawk perches throughout the property to facilitate wildlife conservation efforts in the river shed area.

Vectren is also helping the environment through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Energy Systems Group (ESG). An accredited leader in facility improvement and energy-efficiency programs, ESG is putting solutions in place that preserve and improve the environment. One such award-winning project entailed an upgrade of the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse in Evansville, Indiana. ESG completed dozens of energy-efficiency and technological upgrades, from the installation of new HVAC equipment to new lighting and windows, to ensure historical preservation and bring the functionality of the 120-year-old building into the 21st century. 

For more information about Vectren Corporation’s comprehensive efforts to protect and preserve the environment, please visit www.vectren.com.