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This news story originally provided by The
Charleston Gazette
Developers of a proposed Morgantown power plant have agreed
to tighter pollution limits to resolve a challenge of their
state permit.
GenPower LLC also agreed to donate $500,000 a year to a project to mitigate the effects of
acid rain and global climate change.
Lawyers for GenPower filed the proposed settlement
agreement and permit modifications late Thursday afternoon
with the state Air Quality Board.
“All parties were pretty happy with the results of the
settlement,” said Tom Wheble, project manager for
GenPower’s Longview Power operation.
The deal was worked out between GenPower and three
environmental groups that had challenged the company’s state
air pollution permit.
The groups were the Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited and the
National Parks Conservation Association.
Needham, Mass.-based GenPower wants to build the Longview
plant along the Monongahela River near Maidsville, north of
Morgantown.
The $900 million facility would generate abouthe $900
million facility would generate about Parks Conservation
Association.
Needham, Mass.-based GenPower wants to build the Longview
plant along the Monongahela River near Maidsville, north of
Morgantown.
The $900 million facility would generate about 600
megawatts of electricity.
The plant would employ about 60 people and create, at peak
employment, about 1,600 construction jobs, the company says.
In a draft permit, the state Department of Environmental
Protection proposed to allow the plant to emit more than 19
million pounds of air pollution every year.
Under the DEP permit, those emissions would have included
up to 6.4 million pounds per year of sulfur dioxide and 4.3
million pounds of nitrogen oxides. Officials from the DEP
Division of Air Qualitty ficials from the DEP Division of Air
Quality ry year.
Under the DEP permit, those emissions would have included
up to 6.4 million pounds per year of sulfur dioxide and 4.3
million pounds of nitrogen oxides. Officials from the DEP
Division of Air Quality said the plant was a
“state-of-the-art” facility, and refused to tighten the
permit limits.
The environmental groups, represented by Wendy Radcliff, a
lawyer from the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the
Environment, appealed to the Air Quality Board.
Board members had planned an early July appeal hearing, but
rescheduled when the parties indicated that they were trying
to negotiate a settlement.
Under the 10-page settlement, Longview will be limited to
emissions of 4.8 million pounds of sulfur dioxiie and 3.5
million pounds of nitrogen oxides every year — reductions of
25 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
“The Sierra Club does not support construction of this
plant, but the agreement does address many of the air
pollution issues citizens raised during public comment,”
said Jim Kotcon of the West Virginia Sierra Club.
Additional compliance, enforcement and maintenance
provisions would be added to the air permit.
It also provides for the first-ever continuous emission
monitor for mercury to be inclsions would be added to the air
permit. It also provides for the first-ever continuous
emission monitor for mercury to be includdions would be added
to the air permit. It also provides for the first-ever
continuous emission monitor for mercury to be incluued in a
coal-fired power plant permit.
“The plant will have to be operating much more
efficiently, with much tighter controls on all aspects of the
facility,” Wheble said.
The settlement also requires a public comment period on any
future, alternative plan to mitigate air pollution impacts on
the Otter Creek and Dolly Sods wilderness areas and Shenandoah
National Park.
“Parks and people count on responsible industries
striving to be as clean as possible, not as dirty as they can
get away with,” said Joy Oakes, the parks’ association’s
Mid-Atlantic director. “We challenge other coal-burning
power plants to aim for emissions comparable to
Longview’s.”
Once the Longview plant starts to operate, the settlement
requires the company to donate $500,000 a year for 10 years
and $300,000 annually after that to a new nonprofit group that
will work to reduce acid rain and greenhouse gas emissions.
Larry Harris, a spokesman for Trout Unlimited, said that
part of the settlement is “unprecedented in the region.”
“What’s really remarkable is that for the first time in
this part of the country, there is a permittee who takes
seriously the problem of global warming,” added Joe Lovett,
executive director of the Appalachian Center. “If only our
politicians or the DEP were as willing to admit there is a
problem and to try to do something about it.”
Longview still faces another air quality permit challenge
and is seeking approval from the state Public Service
Commission.
The company hopes to begin construction in 2005 and start
operations in 2008.
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