The Virginian-Pilot
©
The state’s largest coal-fired power plant, proposed for Surry County about an hour west of Norfolk, would increase cases of asthma, heart attack, sick days and premature death, according to a report released Monday.
Based on air-pollution projections from the plant’s developer, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, the report from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation also says the costs from so many added health problems would eclipse $200 million a year.
Backed by doctors, scientists and health care professionals, foundation officials argued that the $6 billion power station is not worth the risks to public health and the environment and should be rejected by government regulators.
“Make no mistake, this will lead to more pollution, more premature death and more suffering in Hampton Roads,” said Anna Jeng, an associate professor of environmental health at Old Dominion University, at a news conference in Norfolk.
ODEC, a utility based in suburban Richmond, applied for a state air permit three years ago but has slowed the development of its planned 1,500-megawatt plant due to a weak economy and concerns about a stricter regulatory climate.
It wants to construct the huge power station in the rural town of Dendron. Opponents are suing over local approval of the project, which also promises jobs and tax revenues for struggling Surry County.
In a statement Monday afternoon, ODEC called the report inaccurate and misleading and said it “grossly misrepresents the potential environmental and public health impact.”
David Hudgins, ODEC’s director of external relations, said regulators could not legally issue a permit if tests showed the environment or public health would be “significantly impacted.”
“This simple fact demonstrates how unreliable and unrealistic the CBF report is,” Hudgins said in the statement.
The report is based on the latest emissions information provided by ODEC to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Analysts with the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research group, then plugged the data into models to forecast possible consequences to those living near the proposed plant and throughout the mid-Atlantic.
It predicts 442 additional asthma attacks each year, 3,340 work days lost to sickness, 40 heart attacks and 26 premature deaths in coastal Virginia and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic.
The authors tracked potential effects of pollutants including mercury, ozone, soot and fly ash, and said the plant also would release about 11.7 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas linked to climate change and rising sea levels. With its flat, marshy surface, Hampton Roads is considered the second-most vulnerable metro area in the country to slowly rising seas and their floodwaters, behind New Orleans.
ODEC is planning to build landfills near its Surry power station to hold the powdery, chemical-laden waste from burned coal known as fly ash. Jeng and other scientists, however, are concerned with site maps that show several pieces of these landfills in wetlands near the Blackwater River.
“This is an environmental hazard waiting to happen,” Jeng said, noting how toxic contaminants including arsenic, mercury and chromium could wash into the Blackwater or leach into groundwater supplies. “They should not build the landfills there.”
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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For those skeptical of the numbers
The memo where CBF got much of their numbers, including brief explanation of methodology can be found here: http://wiseenergyforvirginia.org/downloads/Cypress%20Creek%20Health%20Impacts.pdf
The bio of the person who produced the memo can be found here: http://www.msbnrg.com/staff-schoengold.shtml
It seems pretty straightforward to me.
From the memo containing the
From the memo containing the numbers that CBF cites: I modeled the health impacts of fine particle pollution resulting from the announced Old Dominion Electric Cooperative Cypress Creek power plant proposed for Surry County, Virginia using the health impact estimator tool developed by Abt Associates. The tool produces estimates of health impacts using a well-established and extensively peer- reviewed methodology that has been approved by both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The same methodology has provided the basis for regulatory impact analyses in the context of recent EPA rulemakings.
Many scientists, doctors,
Many scientists, doctors, health groups, and government agencies agree that these emissions are dangerous and deadly--there are numerous studies and findings supporting their claims. I'd be interested to see where other scientists, doctors, health groups,or government agencies state otherwise.
advocacy science
Interesting to see the poll does support some common sense of not buying into the CBF story. This is not a forum to debate scientific data. All we are talking about here is the story at hand. Funded by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and written by a reporter of the Baltimore Sun Newspaper. Released in a PR campaign With the sole intent of trying to block the building of a power plant. No more no less. No more a science paper than any university student paper. The big issure of why the energy industry is not bringing on Nuke plants instead of coal, or increased oil and even wind energy programs.... the enviromentlal lobby has to look in the mirror for that.
Science
The Virginian-Pilot online poll is meaningless. Read the Disclaimer: "This is an unscientific sampling of users."
The projections of air pollution from the plant were provided by ODEC to the Virginia DEQ (real data).
The Clean Air Task Force fed that data into EPA-approved computer models to obtain the reported results (real results).
There are numerous studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals that link coal power to health risks.
Comment deleted
Comment removed for rules violation. Reason: Personal attack, name calling
Mercury
ODEC wil put 40+ pounds of mercury into the air through its wonderfully tall stacks according to thir figures in applications. The tall stacks mean that mercury will begin its travel to where it finally lands from a very lofty height. This means it can travel farther than if it came out of a shorter smoke stack. Mercury from coal fired plants is the single largest contributor to mercury contamination in all water resources. It already affects rivers that supply water to the Norfolk Reservoirs via the Blackwater and Nottoway Rivers. You can't eat fish from the Blackwater everyday because it is there! This is fact, not some reporter's bias. The other health hazards are just as real.
Mercury
Coal-fired power plants are the largest industrial source of mercury in the U. S., accounting for about 41%.
A U.S. Geological Survey study in 2009 found mercury in every freshwater fish from nearly 300 streams that were tested nationwide.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8% of American women of childbearing age had unsafe levels of mercury in their blood, putting approximately 322,000 newborns at risk of neurological deficits.
Who's in favor of fetal brain damage? Raise your hands high!
I will count the "thumbs down"
as in favor of fetal brain damage.
sounds like nuke power is the way to go for all
I am surprised and glad to hear the support for nuke power plants. Seems that this is a point that many of agree is the best of the many alternatives...There is no perfect answer but we need AN answer. Time will tell if the powers to be and the enviromental groups come to this same conclusion. I give it 50/50.