Mar 28 - The San Diego Union-Tribune

A local environmental group says that modernizing the South Bay Power Plant -- frequently cited as essential for the region's future power needs -- would subject more than 200,000 Chula Vista residents to unhealthy levels of air pollution.

The Environmental Health Coalition yesterday released a study of likely air emissions from a modern 650-megawatt power plant on the Chula Vista site, concluding that it would significantly contribute to what it says are dangerous levels of pollution in the area.

The coalition said the elevated emission levels from such a power plant would extend to distances that would put children at more than 60 schools and preschools at risk.

A 650-megawatt plant of that size could provide enough electricity to power 500,000 or more homes.

The Environmental Health Coalition, a 26-year-old local organization, has long maintained that pollution from the existing power plant is among the causes of elevated rates of childhood hospitalization from asthma in Chula Vista.

The current plant on the bayfront site began operation in 1960.

As a result of the study's findings, the EHC recommends that all opportunities should be exhausted to pursue renewable nonpollution energy sources in the region.

If regional reliability requires that a plant be built, the coalition said, it should have a capacity of no more than 65 megawatts.

A plant of that size -- sufficient to power 50,000 or more homes -- would produce 25 to 33 percent of the emission levels of a larger generating facility, according to the EHC.

"This is an opportunity to avoid another 40-year mistake by pursuing a clean energy future," said Rebecca Pearl, a spokeswoman for the coalition.

The EHC study was conducted by Environ International Corp. of Irvine.

Duke Energy of North America, which holds a lease on the plant from its owner, the San Diego Unified Port Commission, and is planning a new facility on the site, said that while Environ is a reputable consultant, the EHC study was flawed.

Andrew Trump, Duke's project manager at the South Bay plant, said the coalition studied a water-cooled plant design instead of the air-cooled facility that the energy company now plans to build.

An air-cooled plant, Trump said, would not have the cooling towers that would cause about 80 percent of the particulate pollution projected by the study.

In addition, Trump said, the EHC's consultant firm incorrectly assumed that Duke would be operating the new facility's duct burners -- a component that boosts electricity output -- more than 300 days of the year. Instead, he said, the duct burners would likely operate for about 20 days each year.

"We are designing this new plant in a way that ensures it will meet all applicable air quality regulations," Trump said.

He emphasized that the plant planned for the site would generate more electricity, yet produce fewer emissions than the existing facility.

"This new plant would be part of a continuous improvement in air quality in this region," he said.

Duke is scheduled to transfer ownership of the lease at South Bay to LS Power, a New York company, in June.

Trump said the new owners were also committed to building the same type of plant, with a goal of filing the first permit with state regulators by the end of June.

A spokeswoman for the San Diego Air Pollution Control District confirmed that the region has been steadily lowering its level of fine particulate pollution in recent years. Fine particulates -- 2.5 microns or smaller -- are considered a greater hazard that larger particulates.

But Anita Pinsley, the control district spokeswoman, added that the region isn't in compliance with state standards for particulate pollution of either size.

The local air district is in compliance with some federal standards, while not with others, she said.

Pinsley added that the South Bay air quality monitoring station, located within three miles of the power plant, had not recorded high levels of particulates from the existing plant.

Melanie McCutchan, a research associate with EHC, said there were still "many sets of human lungs between the power plant and the monitoring station."

She said Duke's proposal to build an air-cooled plant would "not significantly" affect the particulates emissions expected from the plant by EHC's study.

"We know that the plant contributes particulate matter to the atmosphere and we know that Chula Vista has high rates of asthma," McCutchan said.

"A large power plant, even with better technology, will perpetuate poor air quality and increase the risk of cancer and asthma," she said. "It is unnecessary to submit residents to these risks when there are viable alternatives."

Bill Powers, an engineer and chairman of the Border Power Plant Work ing Group, said he was encouraged to hear that Duke is targeting a dry cooled plant, at least partly because the use of bay water for cooling by the existing plant takes a heavy environmental toll.

"But I haven't seen the studies and can't say with certainty how much eliminating the cooling towers would reduce particulate emissions," he said. "At other sites, eliminating cooling towers from the design has had a relatively small impact on reducing particulates."

San Diego Gas & Electric has in the past said that its planning to satisfy electricity needs assumes that either South Bay or the Cabrillo Power Plant in Carlsbad would be rebuilt.

Eddie Van Herik, an SDG&E spokesman, said yesterday the utility continues to believe the region would need significantly new sources of electricity from within the region.

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