Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition

Meeting Minutes

September 25, 2006

 

The monthly meeting of the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition (MVCAC) was held on Monday, September 25, 2006 at the home of Martha and Larry Schwab. 

 

Attendees: Duane N., Bill W., Jarrett J., Sandy E., Larry S., Paul B., Bobby M., Mark B., Paula H., Jim E., Martha S., Jim K.

 

Duane provided the Treasurer’s Report on behalf of Treasurer Cindy O’Brien, who was unable to attend the meeting.

 

MVCAC currently has a balance of $105.65 in its checking account.

 

Since the last meeting, we paid $1,000 to Synapse Energy.  We still owe Synapse $1,000.  Synapse provided much needed expert testimony for the Public Service Commission hearing on Longview Power’s Siting Certificate and Certificate of Need for a Transmission Line.

 

 

Duane said he visited USEPA Region III headquarters in Philadelphia recently.  The librarian was excited to help him, since she receives few visitors.  Unfortunately, most of the reports on the shelves were quite dated. 

 

Duane also spoke to the person nominally in charge of our area regarding the acid-mine-drainage-cooling water coming from Pennsylvania for the proposed Longview power plant in West Virginia.  He voiced concerns that the large amount of water being evaporated (3,700 gallons per minute) would create clouds, and those clouds would have large quantities of dissolved solids, due to the source of the water.  The USEPA representative told Duane that essentially, she could not help us.  She said Longview’s cooling-water clouds were up to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Division of Air Quality.

 

Duane discussed Longview’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Stormwater permit application and draft permit.  Some of the meeting attendees present had also attended the DEP’s public hearing regarding the draft permit.  Longview applied for a stormwater permit for the construction of a parking lot and construction trailer, and then applied for a permit to operate a power plant, without a permit application to complete the major portion of the construction activities. DEP granted them a draft permit for the construction and operation on the basis of these incomplete applications.

 

Duane thinks all of our comments at the public hearing and our letters and various phone calls are having an impact on this stormwater permit.

 

Matt Sweeney at the DEP is the permit writer.  Jarrett called him several days ago, and Mr. Sweeney had not looked at any of the public comments yet.  None of the attendees present knew of a statutory deadline for DEP to approve or deny a stormwater permit.  They are generally considered to be fairly routine – at least until now.

 

Duane reported on his email interactions with Billy Jack Gregg, the PSC’s Consumer Advocate, regarding the proposed scrubbers at Fort Martin.  Below is Mr. Gregg’s response:

 

Yes, you heard right.  The estimate for the construction costs of the plant that was included in the PSC's securitization order was $338 million.   

 

Allegheny has now come back and told us that based on site specific engineering, the cost will be closer to $500 million.  They have not made any formal filing with the PSC as of yet.  My initial reaction is to stick with securitization at $338 million and have Allegheny finance the difference, using traditional rate making for any recovery of their investment.

 

This may ultimately cost more in the long run than securitizing the entire amount, but I think it places an appropriate share of the risk on Allegheny and will provide a better incentive for them to minimize costs.  The irony here is that if they had come initially and estimated the cost to be $500 million, we probably would have approved it, since the cost is still less than the scrubbers at Harrison that were installed in 1994.

 

                                                Billy Jack Gregg, PSC Consumer Advocate

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By consensus, the participants present decided that MVCAC would send a letter to Billy Jack Gregg at the PSC stating that MVCAC does not support securitization of the additional cost in the form of a flat rate per month, but rather, MVCAC supports a rate-based approach in combination with passing the additional cost on to Allegheny Energy’s stockholders. 

 

Duane noted that when Allegheny Energy pleaded its case for securitization of the $330+ million before the PSC, the company was close to bankruptcy.  Now revenues are up and its stock has increased and has even been rated a “Buy” by some stock-rating companies.

 

The Internal Revenue Service has been contacted regarding MVCAC’s application for 501( c)(3) nonprofit status and was told we were in the queue, but they have only now reviewed applications submitted in December 2005.  MVCAC’s application was submitted in February 2006.  Apparently, if the IRS does not approve nonprofit status right away it means something about the application requires more scrutiny.  Duane tried to call the person assigned to the case, Ms. Schaal, but she was unavailable.  The meeting attendees agreed by consensus that MVCAC should continue to contact Ms. Schaal by telephone in an attempt to determine why our application was not considered to be straightforward.

 

An overview was presented of the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s conditional approval of Longview Power’s Siting Certificate and Certificate of Need for a Transmission Line in August and the appeal by Concerned Citizens, CRD, CALP, CLEAR, and others at the State Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court will hear the petition to appeal on October 24, 2006.  Phil Gaujot, despite recently having the lobe of one lung removed, has agreed to present the petition on behalf of Concerned Citizens.

 

Jim K. commented on the new USEPA air standard for fine particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5)..  Jim basically said,

 

The EPA …  lowered the daily standard from 65 down to 35 ug/m3; however, they left the annual standard at 15 ug/m3, ignoring their own science advisory panel that recommended a level between 12 and 14.  The American Lung Association was recommending a daily standard of 25 ug/m3, much lower than the EPA’s 35µg/m3. 

 

For Morgantown, PM2.5 has been coming down in recent years.  Our 3-year average was right at the annual limit (15 ug/m3), but the scrubbers at Fort Martin should reduce that somewhat.  Nevertheless, our daily peaks have been at or above the 35 ug/m3 standard in some years, and our annual average is well above the 12 ug/m3 that the American Lung Association recommended. 

 

The new standards are proposed to go into effect in 2007, with nonattainment designations to be made in 2009.  Areas with bad air would not have to reduce pollution to attain the new standard until 2015, so please hold your breath until then.

 

Dennis G. sent a note saying he regretted being unable to attend the meeting, so his “Update on the Nemacolin Greene Energy Resource Recovery Project (GERRP)” email was read to the attendees and is as follows:

 

MVCAC donated some of the first funds that got the appeal going.  The hearing of the appeal before the PA Environmental Hearing Board concluded in June.  The final post-hearing briefs have been filed in the past week or so.  We expect a ruling from the PA Environmental Hearing Board late this year - most likely November, but perhaps sooner.  It can't be much later, because the developer must, under PA law, begin construction sometime in December (18 months after the permit was granted, with no adjustment for appeals).  I was in a conference call yesterday with the other appellants and our attorneys.  Of the four major issues we have raised, we think we have a reasonable chance on two of them.  But we also realize that we will most likely need to carry the appeal to a higher level.  We're lining up counsel for that.

 

Please extend my thanks again, and those of the other GERRP appellants, for MVCAC’s crucial early support.

 

Jim reminded the group that Longview in WV also had an 18-month deadline to start construction, but they quietly asked for and received an extension for two years from the WV DEP.  The WV DEP considered it a minor permit modification.  Paula said she would mention this to Dennis.  The meeting participants suggested that the appellants require GERRP to notify the appellants, send them a copy of any extension request, and require PADEP to accept public comment before deciding on an extension.

 

There was some discussion of a public event: bringing in speakers to talk about air quality.  Possible speakers would be from the WVDEP, USEPA, American Lung Association, WVU Hospitals/Health Sciences Center, etc.  Specific names were mentioned and some of those people will be called to see if they would participate. 

 

Bill announced that the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), responsible for submitting this area’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan, is having its last public meeting on October 4^th at 6:30pm at the Erickson Alumni Center.  Bill felt that we needed a good turnout and we need to challenge the MPO and its consultants about the plan.  The plan consists of building more roads with little or no planning for mass transportation or alternate forms of transportation.  The MPO and its Plan ignores air quality and the fact that this area is teetering on the brink of nonattainment.

 

Bill asked that everyone please attend this meeting.

 

Jarrett said he sent the WVDEP/DAQ information about mercury that he received from NIOSH.

 

Jim K. reported on the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities initiative with the City of Morgantown and the Sierra Student Coalition’s (Student Sierra Coalition?) initiative to do the same with WVU and the “Campus Climate Challenge,” the university equivalent of Cool Cities.

 

By consensus, the participants present decided that MVCAC would send a letter to Morgantown City Manager Dan Boroff in support of the Cool Cities initiative.

 

In addition, the participants present decided, by consensus, that MVCAC would send a letter to WVU’s Board of Governors requesting that they choose a University President that will lead the state in environmental initiatives (not just to football conference championships).

 

Jarrett discussed the Indiana bat and Running Buffalo Clover in relation to the Longview site.

 

Jarrett noted that Longview does not have the letters it needs from the Fish & Wildlife Service, The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), or the Army Corps of Engineers.

 

Bill noted that a recent issue of Scientific American is devoted entirely to energy, with a large discussion of the use of coal in energy production.

 

The meeting was adjourned around 9:00 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted, Paula Hunt, Assistant to the Secretary, September 26, 2006.

[Reviewed and distributed on October 9, 2006.]