Minutes - Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition Meeting Date: September 26, 2005 The monthly meeting of the MVCAC was held at 7:00 pm at the home of Martha and Larry Schwab with 13 members and two guests in attendance. The meeting began with a presentation by the first guest, Joe Molnar, who was introduced by Deb Fulton. He is working with the SunDogs program at Cheat Lake Middle School. The SunDogs program "is a hands-on, online, natural resource conservation curriculum for students in grades 4-12 which aims to give the students the knowledge and skills they need to make decisions about energy and conservation." The program was founded by Susan Hermann Gledhill and Jonathan Gledhill of Fairfax, Virginia. Joe described the program and passed around some curricular materials. More information can be found at http://www.sundogsusa.com. Duane asked Joe how we could help, and Joe indicated that there was no clean air module, so MVCAC might be able to contribute to that. He also suggested that we could provide money to help finance the program. Duane provided a brief update about Longview. The FAA gave Longview permission to build a permit that was above stack height standards. Duane stated that we have until October to appeal the FAA's decision. He proposed that we ask attorney Mary Anne Maul to read about the appeal process and determine whether she would be willing to take on the appeal for us. Duane reported that Allegheny Power has permission to design the proposed scrubbers for the Ft. Martin power plant and submit the design to the Public Service Commission. The cost of the scrubbers would be passed on to the consumer, but MVCAC supports this, because our air would be cleaner. The second guest, Patrick Kirby from Boggs Environmental, was introduced by Karen Woodfork. He discussed whether the company would provide air monitoring equipment to MVCAC. He is currently exploring the possibility of retrofitting devices that Boggs currently owns to allow for the measurement of small particulates. Patrick said that if this is not possible, larger particulates (PM 10) could still be monitored. He also stated that Boggs does not own equipment for monitoring ozone, and they would not be interested in purchasing such equipment, because they would not use it. Duane described various monitoring methods, including instantaneous, periodic, and continuous. Both he and Patrick agreed that the first two would be most reasonable for our group, although Patrick indicated that continuous might be possible, depending on how the data were collected. Patrick asked that we come up with a monitoring plan (where, when, what), which will guide the choice of the type of equipment we use. See also: _www.boggsenvironmental.com_ (http://www.boggsenvironmental.com/) Duane presented a tentative budget that he and Deb created. This included the allocation of money to activities such as legal expenses and education. He asked the group to look the budget over and determine whether it was satisfactory, or whether we wanted to move some of the money between the different categories. Paula suggested that more money be allocated to legal expenses. The group unanimously approved the budget with Paula's suggested change. Duane then proposed that we allocate some money to legal expenses related to appealing the permit for the Greene Energy gob plant. Dennis indicated that the money would go toward expenses such as expert witnesses and transcripts. Duane moved that we allocate $2000 to the appeal, Linda seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. See also: _http://www.energyjustice.net/coal/wastecoal/_ (http://www.energyjustice.net/coal/wastecoal/) Based on his correspondence with FERC, Jarrett has determined that there is no energy shortage in WV. He has now sent a letter asking whether there are any shortages in our region. Duane announced that the PSC has formed the task force to create noise guidelines for power plants. There will be two meetings of the task force, and several MVCAC members have been appointed to the task force. Duane discussed the proposed “tax increment financing” or TIF for the Suncrest Town Centre and distributed petitions that he had created that asked the County Commission to deny the TIF and support farmland preservation. He asked that people try to attend the County Commission meeting at 10:30 am on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 to voice their opposition to the TIF. Linda described a program that the city of Indianapolis, IN has developed in response to being out of compliance for ozone levels. The program is called Knozone, and it is designed to reduce ozone emission and to educate citizens about ways they can reduce ozone emission. Their web site includes an air quality index. Don asked for more information to share with the city of Morgantown. The Knozone web site url is: _http://www.knozone.com_ (http://www.knozone.com/) Duane informed the group that the province of Ontario in Canada has conducted a study and determined that coal-fired power generation is more costly than other alternatives when the costs of the health impacts are considered, based upon a cost/benefit study. They have a plan to phase out four of their five coal-fired plants by next year and the fifth within two years. See the following web site: _www.energy.gov.on.ca_ (http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/) Paula announced that an economic development class is looking for someone to do a point-counter point type of presentation regarding Longview. Gen Power is being asked to participate. If anyone is willing to represent our group, please contact Paula. Larry stated that he had written a Letter to the Editor regarding air issues and which appeared in the Dominion Post over Labor Day weekend. Respectfully submitted, Linda Shuster, Secretary, MVCAC [September 28, 2005] Web-sites: _www.nolongview.org_ (http://www.nolongview.org/) And this: _www.monvalleycleanair.org_ (http://www.monvalleycleanair.org)