There is a provision in the air permit rules that an air permit becomes invalid and may be revoked if construction has not started within 18 months of issuance. The purpose of this provision is to make sure that new facilities install the very latest pollution controls and that the permit does not become "stale" with age.
We almost had them on this at Longview, but at the last minute, Longview moved some trailers and a bulldozer onto the site and started pushing dirt around, just to say that construction had started.
WV-DEP has generally bent over backwards to extend a permit, but has never given public notice of a permit extension, and often accepts an extremely cursory review, instead of a new BACT analysis as is required by the Clean Air Act. Since the permit was issued April 26, 2006, and has not been amended or changed since then, I don't think DEP can argue that our appeal negates the need for a new BACT analysis, as they did with Longview.
In any event, getting the air permit revoked would be a good way to put a nail in the coffin of this ugly monster. There is precedent for this. When the pulp mill at Apple Grove told DEP that "market conditions had changed" as their excuse why they had not started construction, DEP revoked their air permit. If DEP can do this with Cecil Underwood as Governor, why not now?
Happy Valentines Day.
Jim Kotcon
"Beth Little" blittle@citynet.net 2/13/2008 8:09 PM >>>
Hello fellow lovers of clean air and water,
No news is good news?
I'm not ready to relax completely and assume the Western Greenbrier CoGen plant is dead, but there have been no vehicles at the site for months now, except Wayne Brown's a couple of times. Neely, the young gung ho employee, is gone, is selling his home and word is he is going back to his old job. Even if it is dead, it rankles that the taxpayers footed the bill for several years of fat salaries and pie-in-the-sky visions. It sure would be nice if the press would do their job and expose this boondoggle for what it is/was.
The next problem is that there has been a permit issued for a mountaintop removal project in western Greenbrier Co.
We are finally getting the low-rate green bags for people to use and will need to distribute them. We will have a meeting in March to pass out the bags, share news and decide what to do next.
IF ANYONE FINDS OUT ANYTHING FROM RAINELLE, RUPERT OR QUINWOOD TOWN COUNCILS, COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, ETC. ABOUT THE STATUS OF THE PROJECT, PLEASE FORWARD THE INFORMATION.
Beth Little HC 64 Box 281 Hillsboro, WV 24946 304-653-4277 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.2/1272 - Release Date: 2/11/2008 5:28 PM