Friday, December 9, 2005

Local residents hold dim views on power plant


By REBECCA MEANY
Express Staff Writer

Lauren McLean, outreach director for the Idaho Conservation League, discusses Wednesday the coal-fired power plant proposed for Jerome County. Three state legislators hosted the meeting at the Limelight Room of the Sun Valley Inn, and another meeting later that night in Hailey, to provide information and opinions regarding the impacts of the 600-megawatt plant proposed by Sempra Generation. Looking on are, from left to right, Sen. Clint Stennett, Bill Block, a Twin Falls engineer, Joe Ruschetti, a retired hospital administrator, and state Rep. Wendy Jaquet. Photo by David N. Seelig

Emotions were calm, but minds were made up.

Attendees at two Blaine County meetings Wednesday on a proposed 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Jerome County were decidedly against the project planned by Sempra Generation.

"We don't need it. We don't want it," said Blaine County resident Chris Harding. "I gathered a lot of information (at the meeting). I'm hoping to network, too, and find out what else I can do."

Approximately 60 people attended the session in Sun Valley, while the Hailey meeting later Wednesday night drew about 45 people. Most attendees were from Blaine County, but a small contingent from Jerome County was present at the Hailey discussion.

Helen Stone, of Hailey, was energized by the presentations.

"There was so much information," she said. "They're offering jobs, but I don't think it's a fair trade. Idaho water is too precious. I wish everybody in the valley had come. It affects us all."

San Diego-based Sempra Generation, operating in Idaho under the special-purpose subsidiary Idaho Valley Energy, announced in April that it wants to build a $1.4 billion power plant about nine miles northeast of Jerome.

"This is the single biggest threat, I believe, to Idaho's quality of life," said state Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, who was a co-sponsor of the event. Reps. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum and Donna Pence, D-Gooding, also hosted the meetings.

Patty Nance, a Magic Valley-based spokeswoman for Idaho Valley Energy, said Sempra was not invited to Wednesday's meetings.

"We'll take every opportunity we can get," she said Thursday. "We love invitations."

Presenters included Bill Block, an engineer from Twin Falls, Lauren McLean, outreach director for the Idaho Conservation League, and Joe Ruschetti, who retired from a career in power plant operations and hospital administration.

Stennett introduced a state siting bill during the 2004-2005 legislative session, but it failed to get printed. He repeated his efforts this summer during interim energy committee meetings, but it again went nowhere.

"The committee basically walked away from it," he said Wednesday. "Idaho is alone in the West by not having a statewide committee. The decision by default falls back to county commissioners. (They've) been given a great carrot: $18 million a year in property taxes, which essentially doubles the county budget, or has the opportunity to. It would be OK if we could build a curtain around Jerome County and keep everything in Jerome County."

Stennett said the potential adverse effects include 500 train car loads of coal traveling through Idaho each week, as well as impacts to the air and water from mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide.

McLean helped draft the siting bill, taking ideas from the other 45 states that have similar legislation.

"Legislation should maybe allow no more mercury sources in Idaho until we get a grip on this problem," she said.

Idahoans have been advised since 2001 to monitor their fish consumption due to increased levels of mercury found in some contaminated bodies of water where fish are caught. The state's fish consumption advisory group is comprised of representatives from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, the Idaho Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Idaho Fish and Game, the U.S. Geological Survey and the governor's office.

Sempra representatives have previously said the Jerome County plant would meet all of the health-based air-quality standards set by regulators.

According Idaho Valley Energy's Web site, the plant's air-emission-control system would remove about 70 percent of mercury found in coal and capture it with the fly ash or the gypsum.

"The rest of the mercury is essentially in its elemental form and emitted from the stack at an estimated rate of 100 to 160 pounds per year," the Web site states.

Block said his experience in engineering and his research of the project left little doubt that he should not support its construction.

"As a civil engineer ... I started looking at the details of it," he said. "The more I looked at it, the more I concluded this is over the top."

He and his wife, state Rep. Sharon Block, R-Twin Falls, have since been speaking out against the project.

"The power goes out of state and the profit goes out of state," he said. "Perhaps Jerome County gets some revenue but I don't think the economics have been looked at (enough)."

He said 4,000 acres would be taken out of agricultural production and turned to heavy industry, a move contrary to the heartbeat and history of the Magic Valley.

Additionally, he said, the location over the Snake River Plain Aquifer, which is a sole-source water provider for some 70,000 to 80,000 homes, could potentially be contaminated by the power plant.

Blaine County residents should be concerned, Block said, because possible air contamination could damage the "world-class" ski and recreation area here.

"Clean air is what we have to sell," Stennett said. "It's important for our economic well-being as well as our health. More people are starting to figure this out. The lights are starting to come on."

Jaquet acknowledged that Jerome County doesn't have the economic benefits that many other counties' residents have.

"It's been really, really tough on these communities," she said. "(This) is going to make all of us work together better as a region. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a way to improve these economies without a coal-fired power plant."

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Where to comment

The Idaho Conservation League encourages people to submit comments to Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne through the state Web site, www.state.id.us.

Sempra representatives encourage people to go to their Web site at www.idahovalleyenergy.com. Questions can be submitted online.




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