Public asked about natural gas power plant
WAWAYANDA — The New York State Public Service Commission is seeking comment on a controversial natural-gas powered electric plant proposed for the Town of Wawayanda.
A public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, in Room 130 of the Library/Gilman Center at Orange County Community College, 115 South St., Middletown.
CPV Valley, LLC, plans to own and operate a 630-megawatt electric generating plant on 122 acres in Wawayanda, within a three-mile radius of the Town of Goshen. It is seeking the authority to operate as an electric corporation regulated by the commission.
The commission must consider whether granting such authority is necessary or convenient for the public service. The commission may approve, modify, or reject CPV Valley's request in whole or in part.
The public will have an opportunity to speak before an administrative law judge assigned by the commission to hear this case. A verbatim transcript of the hearings will be made for inclusion in the record of the proceeding. (See sidebar for how to submit comments.)
The commission’s decision, when issued, may be obtained on the commission’s website by searching for Case 10-E-0501. Commission orders may also be obtained from the Commission’s Files Office, 14 floor, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12223; phone: 518-474-2500).
Town of Goshen raises questions
In 2009, the Town of Goshen's Environmental Review Board submitted an 11-page letter to the Town of Wawayanda Planning Board, the lead agency for the power plant project, asking how it would relate to "Land Use, Zoning and Public Policy, Community Facilities, Visual Resources, Air Quality, Noise, Geology, Seismology and Soils, Water Resources, Ecology, Community Character, Cumulative Impacts, Other Environmental Impacts, Alternatives, and other numerous miscellaneous impacts that need to be addressed."
Goshen Councilman Phil Canterino said at the time he was concerned that the draft environmental impact statement did not satisfactorily address some critical issues.
Several storage tanks will be sited at the plant, including a 965,000-gallon tank for fuel oil, a 15,000-gallon aqueous ammonia storage tank, and a 400,000-gallon demineralized water tank. A secondary safety containment area, designed to hold 110 percent of the entire volume of the tanks, will be built around the oil and ammonia tanks, as state law requires.
Supervisor Doug Bloomfield in 2009 questioned the size of the fuel oil storage tank, asking if there is enough fire equipment in all of Orange County to contain an explosion or fire striking a tank of that size.
Ammonia 'under the radar'
A member of the public questioned the onsite storage of ammonia used to control emissions at the plant: "When ammonia at a 20 percent concentration is stored, the Clean Air Act and federal regulations require that a catastrophic release model be developed. However, the plant will avoid this requirement by using 19 percent concentration. This has the appearance of attempting to 'fly under the radar,' which is disappointing and raises a concern whether safety was of the highest priority in Project planning."
CPV's response was only that the draft air permit requires the facility to verify that the maximum ammonia concentration will not exceed 19 percent, and therefore not trigger the 20 percent federal threshold for storage."
Other members of the public questioned the quality and purity of the natural gas that will be delivered to pipelines from drilling and fracking. Hydraulic fracturing requires that large quantities of toxic chemicals be injected underground, and the shale itself contains a number of toxic metals and radioactive elements.
CPV Valley, LLC, is a limited liability company formed under the laws of the State of Delaware. The CPV Valley Energy Center will be located adjacent to Interstate 84, and will be driven by two gas turbines and one steam turbine in a “combined-cycle” configuration using natural gas. CPV says it will be "one of the cleanest conventional electric generating projects in the world when it comes on-line in 2016" while annually supplying the "total electricity needs for the equivalent of more than half-a-million New York state households. The project will use recycled water it purchases from the City of Middletown.
Online
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on the CPV Valley Energy Center: dec.ny.gov/permits/83449.html
CPV Valley, LLC: cpvvalley.com
Protect Orange County: http://www.blog.protectorangecounty.org
Petition: No CPV Valley frack-fired power plant in NY: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/no-fracked-fired-power