The project is a joint venture between Houston-based Dynegy Inc., its subsidiaries and a management group of companies specializing in the power industry.
“It’s going to be a large taxpayer and large employer,” said Dynegy Inc. spokesman David Byford. “What you see is a large ripple effect in the community.”
Byford said the plant is designed to be one of the cleanest pulverized coal plants in the country.
“We’re going to have proven technologies such as low nitrogen oxide burners, scrubbers and a bag house that catches the material that would otherwise be leaving through the chimney.”
Byford said the plant will use pulverized coal that is mined in the Powder River Basin, located in Wyoming and Montana, and one of the richest coal fields in the United States.
Professor of plant chemistry Dr. Neil Carman, and clean air program director with the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter, said emissions from the plant could put Temple in jeopardy of not complying with recent, stricter Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards.
“This plant has a lot of pollution in it,” said Carman. “Some of the chemicals coming out of the stack at Sandy Creek will form smog, affecting McLennan, and potentially Bell County during the summer.”
Carman said this is a huge issue for area businesses seeking air permits because Bell County is “barely under” new Environmental Protection Agency standards set last March. With the wind blowing from the northeast, or with no wind in the dog days of summer, Carman said Temple could see some smog.
Carman said the plant would emit 5 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) per day. According to the EPA, NOx contributes to a wide variety of health and environmental problems, including acid rain, water quality deterioration, and ozone depletion.
According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, during the summer of 2006, Temple would have exceeded the new air quality standards four times.
Carman said exceeding the new standards could result in tailpipe emissions tests for automobiles, which run about $25. To cope with this problem in the summer, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has required gasoline retailers to sell only specially blended, and more expensive fuels.
Cyrus Reed with the Sierra Club said a group of about 50 college students and landowners gathered near the Sandy Creek plant site last Tuesday - the 38th annual Earth Day - to demonstrate their opposition to the plant.
Dynegy spokesman Byford said, “Debate and discussion on issues like this is very important. The bottom line is, we’re using advanced technologies for building Sandy Creek”
From Dynegy’s Web site: Dynegy Inc. produces and sells electric energy, capacity and ancillary services in key U.S. markets. The company’s power generation portfolio consists of about 20,000 megawatts of baseload, intermediate and peaking power plants fueled by a mix of coal, fuel oil and natural gas.
