By Kimberly Lenz
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
A bird's-eye view of where the Cypress Creek Power Station would be located in Dendron.
A local forum about the proposed coal-fired plant in Surry County drew around 80 to the Williamsburg Regional Library Theatre Tuesday morning. Although the plant would be situated across the James River, electricity demands well beyond Surry are fueling it and the region would shoulder environmental and health effects that come as part of the price of those demands.
The forum offered two distinct points of view: a supportive take on the plant from David Hudgins, who’s been the public face of the plant the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative wants to build across the James River in Dendron for about three years, and a critical warning of health and environmental issues ahead from physician Christine Llewellyn, who founded the Williamsburg Climate Action Network.
The League of Women Voters of the Williamsburg Area sponsored the forum.
Packing their 15-minute presentations and five-minute rebuttals with facts about the plant, its construction, demands on the local water supply, and an abundance of statistics on emissions, both Hudgins and Llewellyn provided a steady defense of their positions.
Electricity demands were going up, said Hudgins, who reminded the audience that ODEC “didn’t just wake up one morning” and decide to pour billions into a new plant. Virginia is the nation’s largest importer of electricity, he said, just behind California. Just 10 years ago electricity consumption was about 50 percent less than it is today, with the arrival of energy-hungry appliances like iPods and flat screen TVs. Reserves have dropped, Hudgins said, “and we are on the razor’s edge of blackouts.”
Energy efficiency helps reduce consumption, but lifestyle-driven changes that insist on more electricity more than make up for those reductions. Hudgins said the coal alternative was the cheapest, most readily available option to consumers. Renewable energy sources were a combination of speculation that “couldn’t supply you guys with electricity. Because when you want your light switch to work we have to make sure it does.”
Llewellyn’s somber presentation laid out a different snapshot, which projected what she called the long-term health and environmental costs the power supplied would cost. A coal-fired power plant of the size ODEC proposes “would immediately become the sixth largest polluter in Virginia,” she said. Llewellyn pointed to numerous studies by the American Cancer Society and others that showed links between ozone, mercury and fine particle pollution and mortality.
Already, she said, Hampton Roads’ ozone rating is higher than the national standard, which she predicts will hurt economic development. Mercury is another danger; a single gram in a 20-acre lake is enough to trigger an advisory not to eat fish caught there. The Dendron plant would generate nearly 20,000 grams of mercury a year, having a “huge impact on the Chesapeake Bay.”
The answer to the area’s electricity needs is “as cheap as purchasing the surplus already on the grid,” Llewellyn said, disputing Hudgins’ suggestion that blackouts were not far ahead. “The idea that we could get all of our energy from renewable energy sources is not far-fetched.”
ODEC’s plans need to clear a number of hurdles before it can be built, not the least of which is a series of some 45 permits. The most critical permits are the ones that may be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Environmental Quality. A DEQ review would be prompted by 35 citizens requesting one by the water board, Llewellyn said.
Hudgins agreed renewable energy sources needed to be part of the future, as did reduced consumption by the public. But he also pointed to a different source of most of the pollution the region already faces: too many cars on the road.
“Hampton Roads has a vehicle problem. Williamsburg has a vehicle problem,” said Hudgins, adding that the tourist-driven economy relies increasingly on travelers who get here by car. “That’s what causes pollution – four million visits a year.”
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I am a resident/proper ty owner of the Town of Dendron where ODEC most desires to build this coal fired power station - 1500 MW backed right up to our little Town with a Coal Ash/Fly Ash landfill.
I just posted an article on my blog with links to another great piece done by CBF:
Shortened WordPress Blog link:
A Tale of Two Cities and The Broken Promise of Coal
http://wp.me/piTpo-lA
BambisMusings.WordPress.com
Citizens, band together and let's support Dr. L's protest!!!
I think this sounds like an interesting debate. Unfortunately I couldn't make it. One thing that either should have been mentioned, or if it were mentioned, should have been included in the article: we can all help both sides of the argument (cheaper, more abundant electricity, and less pollution) by consuming less! Shut off your computer if you're going to bed for the night. Use compact fluorescents, choose energy-star appliances, install a programmable thermostat, etc.