Oct 15, 2007 - Knight Ridder Tribune Business News
Author(s): Spencer Hunt

Oct. 15--LETART FALLS, Ohio -- Robert Morris has a cup of coffee, a comfortable chair and a ready wave of his hand for the cars and trucks that roll past this tiny Ohio River town.

But his view from the weathered planks of a1940s-era tomato barn, where he often kills time, might soon change. Instead of 1,200 acres of farm fields, the scene would be a $2.5 billion power plant with towering smokestacks, coal yards, conveyors and coo ing towers. The 1,000-megawatt plant, which would be built by 2013, is intended to produce electricity for Cleveland, Westerville and 75 other Ohio communities that buy power from American Municipal Power, a nonprofit company based in Columbus. Local officials describe the proposed plant as their best opportunity to revive commerce in an area that has Ohio's worst unemployment rate.

In August, unemployment in Meigs County was 8.9 percent. Environmentalists say the plant's pollution will further stain a region tainted by the toxic emissions of other coal-burning plants. Like many other residents, Morris said he's ready and willing to trade pollution for jobs. "That stuff doesn't bother me," said Morris, a farmer and township trustee. "This is going to be a big benefit for the township and Meigs County." No one disputes that the county needs jobs. It has lost dollars, businesses and people since the Meigs 31 coal mine shut down in 2001. "It was a devastating loss," said Mick Davenport, a county commissioner who estimates that Meigs 31 once employed about 2,000 miners.

The power plant would employ about 100. Beyond that, it would help create 33 mining jobs and 127 jobs in other businesses that support the plant, said Perry Varnadoe, the county's economic-development director. He put the total economic benefit at $100 illion a year. Although two power plants located just across the river in West Virginia release millions of pounds of pollutants, Meigs is one of only three Ohio counties whose businesses report zero toxic releases to the environment. That would change, too, if the pl nt were built. American Municipal Power's air-permit application and state records show it could emit more than 2.3 million pounds of toxic pollutants a year.

That includes more than 1.4 million pounds of hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, 89,200 pounds of ammonia and 1 7 pounds of mercury. Kent Carson, American Municipal Power's spokesman, said those estimates are based on worst-case scenarios, in which the plant burned high-sulfur coal that produces more pollutants. "You aren't likely to see numbers this high," Carson said. It's hard to compare the plant's expected pollution to emissions from other coal-burning plants, 18 of which are perched along the Ohio River. Each produces pollution based on the amount of electricity it generates and the filters it employs.

One plant of similar size, Duke Energy's Zimmer plant in Clermont County, released more than 1.45 million pounds of toxic chemicals in 2005, including 1.4 million pounds of hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, 4,865 pounds of ammonia and 270 pounds of mercu y in 2005, the most recent year available. Environmentalists say Meigs already suffers from too much pollution. American Electric Power's Mountaineer and Philip Sporn power plants, located about 5 miles north of Letart Falls on the West Virginia side of the river, released a combined 12.4 millio pounds of toxins into the air in 2005. "You're going to continue to burden people, in an area that's already polluted, with more and more pollution," said Sandy Buchanan, director of Ohio Citizen Action.

The advocacy group is among those trying to persuade Ohio cities not to sign long-term c ntracts to take power from the plant. Buchanan and other groups favor a different type of power plant that turns coal into a gas that's then burned to make electricity. The process is supposed to strip away pollutants and keep them out of the air. Columbus-based American Electric Power has plans to build one of these plants along the Ohio River in Meigs County. The proposal is bogged down in a lawsuit challenging AEP's bid to charge its customers for $23.7 million in research and other preconstru tion costs.

Some Letart Falls residents were less concerned about the pollution than they were about noise from the plant or that being so close to a power plant might lower their property values. Several said they hoped American Municipal Power would buy their hom s. "We just don't know what's in store for us," said Judy Pickett, whose backyard overlooks the river and its steady stream of boats pushing coal barges. Her neighbor Randall Roberts dismissed notions that the plant's pollution might be harmful. "People in Racine live right across from power plants," he said. "Meigs County doesn't have any jobs." Not everyone favors the plant.

Elisa Young, founder of a group called Meigs Citizens Action Now, said officials need to find jobs in cleaner industries. "We already have power plants here. Shouldn't we be rolling in economic prosperity?" Young said. "It's not going to bring other businesses here." shunt@dispatch.com The power plant would employ about 100. Beyond that, it would help create 33 mining jobs and 127 jobs in other businesses that support the plant.
 

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