A couple things here.
One: Large scale power plants typically have teams of operators with training and supervision operating in shifts. My local university, UAF, just built a new power plant, starting with a clean sheet of paper, designed to function with the not very high quality coal from the coal mine about 125 miles down the railroad track from campus. It has a "fluidized bed" of sand, a bunch air blowers, runs on coal that is crushed down to smaller than golf ball sized lumps and was sized by an engineer spefically to meet the current and proposed future power needs of the entire campus. That bigger burners have custom engineering is a small leap.
Certainly older coal burning power plants are scary by today's standards.
Two: I am relieved to see I wasn't quoted in that article. I think what I read is the truth and nothing but the truth, sadly not the whole truth.
Not many years ago during a local election it was decided by a majority of voters in the North Star Borough (like a county with Fairbanks as the seat) that the borough assembly did not have the authroity to regulate air quality. So enforcement fell to ADEC, Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation. Instead of enforcing laws, ADEC starting having meetings so they would not have to knock on doors.
Were you somewhere on College Road for that bad burner pic
@BKVP ? It looks like you were facing north, probably not on Farmer's Loop Road, but ther houses in your pic are way too big to be on all the permafrost in that area unless we got some new idiots in town with more money than sense.