State gets earful from public
By Rachel Parsons

February 5, 2010

Kentuckians had the opportunity to make their voices heard Thursday night concerning the proposed coal-fired generator at East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s J.K. Smith Station in Trapp.

At a public hearing before the Kentucky Division of Air Quality, held at the local Cooperative Extension Service office, concerned people from throughout the state came forward to speak in favor of or against the project.

Winchester resident Kevin Weir was the first to speak, citing his experience as an employee in plants similar to Smith Station to support his comment in favor of the plant.
“I don’t think it represents a sincere and significant danger,” Weir said.

Bill Quisenberry, also a Winchester resident, said the power outage from the 2009 ice storm confirmed the need for a stable power source.

“We need dependable energy now,” Quisenberry said. “I’m 72-years-old. I’d like to have it for at least two or three more years.”

The majority of the comments, however, came from citizens opposed to the J.K. Smith project. Representatives from the Sierra Club and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth used the hearing to talk about threats to air quality and public health. The groups also raised concerns over the fact that coal is a non-renewable resource.

“The standards EKPC (East Kentucky Power Coop) is using … were established when my mom was 12-years-old, in 1971,” Megan Naseman, a member of both KFTC and Sierra Club, said at the hearing.

Naseman’s comment was met with a chorus of both cheers and boos from the audience.

Berea College student Carol Davey spoke about her experiences living near a power plant in her hometown of Cheshire, Ohio. She said she was recently diagnosed with scoliosis, something she thinks could be attributed to pollution from the plant.

“The smoke (in Cheshire) is so thick, the children think they made the clouds,” Davey said.

Prior to the hearing, KFTC, the Sierra Club and the Kentucky Environmental Foundation hosted a press conference that included comments from Winchester businessman Billy Edwards.

University of Kentucky student Lydia Courtright and Clay County resident Randy Wilson also shared comments at the meeting.

“EKPC, you have the power to make the right choice for today,” Wilson said. “(Coal) is going to peak in 2020. After that, it’s going to go dramatically down.”
Club members tied green ribbons around their arms and wore stickers that proclaimed, “Action now for a clean energy future.”

The public hearing was moderated by Division of Air Quality representative Jim Morris. He said the division will take all public comments into consideration before making a decision about whether or not to approve Smith Station.

Morris said the board wanted to hear only comments regarding air quality, but speakers didn’t comply with the rule, talking about other issues such as mining jobs, water pollution from coal and climate change.

In addition to the public hearing, citizens were invited to submit written comments to the division. A written comment, which must be submitted by Feb. 15, preserves the right to petition the Environmental Protection Agency after a ruling is made.

The Kentucky Division of Air Quality has eight offices throughout the state, including a central office in Frankfort. Each comment will receive a written response from the division.

East Kentucky Power representative Nick Comer said that the cooperative is working hard to make Smith Station as environmentally friendly as possible.

“This will be one of the cleanest coal-fueled units in the United States. When you look at what’s happened the last 20 to 30 years with emissions and what’s allowed by the law, it has dropped precipitously,” Comer said today.

New technology, Comer said, has made it possible to burn coal without diminishing air quality.

“It’s what we refer to as circulating fluidized bed. It’s different than the traditional pulverized coal units that were typical back in the 70s and even 80s. It actually burns coal longer at a lower temperature, and because it’s at a lower temperature, it reduces emissions. We also mix limestone in the boiler. … The limestone actually absorbs a lot of emissions,” Comer said.

According to Comer, the new technology will reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by 99 percent, mercury by 95 percent, and nitrogen oxide by 80 percent.
“These units are also 10 times cleaner in removing what’s called particulate matter,” he said.

Several citizens at the hearing questioned the need for a new power plant, claiming that the demand for power has decreased in recent years.

Comer said that demand has actually increased by nearly nine percent since 2008. According to Comer, EKPC is currently purchasing electricity off the grid, increasing costs for rate payers.

“This is a power plant that is needed right now, and that’s not even taking into account the future demand group,” Comer said.

For more information on the Smith project, visit www.ekpc.coop.

Contact Rachel Parsons at rparsons@winchestersun.com

Copyright: The Winchester Sun 2010