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Power plant applications OK’d
Published Saturday, February 6, 2010
On Monday night, the Dendron Town Council approved land use and zoning applications for the construction of a massive coal-fired power plant, and on Thursday night, Surry County officials followed suit, paving the way for environmental impact studies to begin.
“Without these changes in the uses and zoning, nothing could proceed as far as the long permitting and studies process with the federal and state agencies,” said Jeb Hockman, a spokesman for Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, the company that wants to build the proposed Cypress Creek Power Station. He called it “the start of a long process.”
The $6 billion proposed power plant straddles the Dendron town limits, so both the town and the county were required to approve applications. Environmental groups, like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, have argued that the plant will add harmful amounts of pollution to the air and local waterways and urged governing bodies to reject the applications.
“ODEC’s proposal will add unacceptable levels of pollution to near and distant lands and waters, affecting not only the immediate area around the plant but all of Hampton Roads and areas as far away as Richmond,” said Chris Moore, the foundation’s science advocate.
While the Surry County Board of Supervisors was holding its meeting and public hearing on the land use applications Thursday, the Board of Supervisors in neighboring Sussex County also approved land-use and zoning applications associated with the project. A site in Sussex County has been identified as an alternate, should the Dendron site be found unsuitable, according to ODEC officials.
Hockman said ODEC is “gratified and humbled by the votes of confidence” from the Dendron Town Council and the Boards of Supervisors in Surry and Sussex counties.
“The citizens of each of these localities can be proud of the thoughtful and measured actions of their elected officials who have worked diligently for almost two years on this issue and who carefully weighed all the information presented,” he said.
Last month, the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors voted to send letters to the chairman of the Surry County Board of Supervisors and the mayor of Dendron, urging them to carefully consider the proposed plant’s effects on the region.
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Comments
Posted by grantsara83 (anonymous) on February 6, 2010 at 11:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Dendron's action should be applauded. Well done.
Posted by griffin (anonymous) on February 6, 2010 at 12:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Both Dendron and Surry ignored the majority will of the residents. Shameful. Especially, when you consider they changed Comprehensive Plans to represent an outside company and not their own residents.
Posted by minkybut (Jeff Turner) on February 6, 2010 at 1:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The town leaders of Dendron made a decision that was not what the majority of people in Dendron wanted. When the facility is finished we will see what everybody says then. The improvements to the community of Dendron (if ODEC honors its promise) will be very nice. I'm not sure if it will be enough to offset the increased traffic, noise, pollution, delays from one mile long train-loads of coal daily, coal dust and particulate coating cars and everything else. Time will tell.
Posted by jaybirdflew (anonymous) on February 9, 2010 at 3:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This coal plant is so huge that it will effect all of Western Tidewater. There needs to be more public input involved, rather than shooting it through. Many of the reports is that this coal technology will not be such a great benefit to our rural area. Do we really need to rely on 'hind-sight'? The facts are that the giant plant will be a major polluter.
Posted by veritas (anonymous) on February 9, 2010 at 4:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ODEC has never said this plant will be $6 billion. Chesapeake Bay Foundation used this number - they were wrong... It might be better to not rely on special interest and environmental groups for data...
And those governing boards didn't ignore the majority. The majority of Surry and Dendron residents - especially those who haven't moved to the area within the past 5 to 10 years - are in favor of this. Most of those who are very outspoken against this plant are new here, or represent environmental groups from outside the area.
Posted by griffin (anonymous) on February 9, 2010 at 7:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So, veritas, do those "new" residents get to vote in your elections? Do they pay the same taxes? Perhaps their children have to sit in the back of the classroom behind the more important "veteran" children? Your reasoning is insane. Taxpaying citizens showed up at the public hearings and spoke out against changing the direction of the area and the coal plant in an overwhelming majority. They were ignored. Perhaps the veteran residents should have attended, too. Or perhaps, they don't really exist. I believe that's the point of the PUBLIC hearing process, no?
Posted by minkybut (Jeff Turner) on February 10, 2010 at 10:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Here are some numbers that were gathered by H. Andrew Gray, Ph.D.
and Gray Sky Solutions San Rafael, CA 94903.
The model predicted that over 260 tons of sulfur and about 118 tons of nitrogen would be
deposited within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed each year due to emissions from the proposed
Cypress Creek plant. Between 10 and 15 percent of both the sulfur and nitrogen emissions from
the proposed power plant would be deposited within the watershed. The model results also
indicate that almost 16 percent of the Cypress Creek’s PM10 emissions will be deposited within
the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, accounting for more than 280 tons per year of fine particulate
matter deposition.
The annual deposition of mercury to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed was estimated to be 26 lb (12 kg), which is more than 12 percent of the total mercury emissions from the proposed plant.
The proposed Cypress Creek power plant would be located within the Blackwater River
Watershed. As a consequence, a larger relative amount of the power plant’s emissions would be
deposited in a given area of this watershed than the other sensitive receptors (see Table 4,
below). The average annual rate of mercury deposition across the Blackwater River Watershed
was estimated to be 1.24 g/km2.
The model estimates that, over a 20 year period, emissions from the proposed power plant would
deposit 528 lb of mercury into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. During the same 20 year period,
about 600 lb of mercury would be deposited within the Commonwealth of Virginia, almost one
quarter of which (144 lb) would be deposited within the James River Basin. The surface within
the Blackwater River Watershed would receive over 100 lb of mercury as a result of this plant’s
emissions. Both the Nottoway River Watershed (68 lb) and the Kerr Reservoir and its tributary
watersheds (39 lb) would also have substantial amounts of mercury deposited over the lifetime of
the proposed power plant.
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