Our chances to speak out and to ask questions

The Cochise County Board of Supervisors have set a few dates for public or open meetings to discuss the issue of whether Bowie should be the home of a coal gas-fired power plant. It's still not on their online calendar, but informed sources tell me that the following public meetings have been set up.

Mid-Sept. at time and location to be determined--work session to discuss the findings of the consultant–open to the public. (note: this date and the date of the following session have been pushed back by 3 weeks to allow the consultant time to review the case.)

Late Sept.—the regularly scheduled Supervisors' meeting will be held in Bowie or Willcox to make the final determination about this project—it will be open to public comment.

The Cochise County Individual And Property Rights Association (CCIPRA) is hosting two SWPG (Southwest Power Group) reps at their meeting on the 25th and they hope people will come and ask hard questions. Helene Jackson, the spokeswoman for the group, told me, "We'll squeeze people in if we have to. Last meeting, Sharon Thomas presented a PowerPoint on this kind of facility. When SWPG learned she would be here, they wanted to come to the same meeting and 'present SWPG's side.' In spite of their persistence through several emails, we convinced them to come to a different meeting. You can imagine what might have happened had they come to the July meeting!!" The August meeting time, place, directions: Sat. Aug. 25, 2 p.m. Jacksons' house: 4012 Davis Rd., McNeal, AZ 1/4 mile west of 191 on Davis, 3rd house past the school property. Click for map.


Ultimately, the Supervisors will decide whether or not SWPG gets rezoning - they need that before they can do anything else. Supervisors Searle and Newman seem to put great weight on what their constituents tell them, so it's critical that people contact one or both, although our supervisor (Searle) appears to have already decided to vote in favor.

While we're on the subject of the Board of Supervisors, I found an interesting write-up on the internet on how to approach the Cochise county offices to get things done. It's at http://littlebigdog.net/ccipra.htm, and it includes a description of the most recent meeting, where they hired the consultant to help sort out issues concerning the power plant.

The writer, said, "(Agenda) Item 17 was to "hire" a technical consultant for the Board as to the proposed Bowie Power Plant. The selection process... was lengthy and impartial... There was no discussion of the details of county supervision of the work, nor of public access to the report once it is finished.

David Getts, the project's general manager, told the Board that he welcomed the process, but he emphasized that the process might get into areas which the county had no role supervising. Getts did not seem to distinguish enough between the Board's voting to allow or prohibit a coal-burning power plant at all, and supervision of the plant once it is constructed. There may be some tension between the plant and the county on this point."

The same meeting was written up in the Arizona Range News by reporter Shar Porier at http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/articles/2007/07/25/news/news1.txt.

One thing that particularly caught my eye was this quote:
"The ADEW team (ie. the hired consultant) also will assess ... the effects of carbon dioxide on the environment.

"They will review the application of SouthWestern Power Group II and look at state and county guidelines," Vlahovich noted. "They will also look at the carbon sequestration technology and determine what levels could be reasonably achieved."

That last part did not sit well with David Getts, general manager of SouthWestern Power Group II, though the company has been supportive of the technical advisor. Currently, there are no federal standards for carbon dioxide emissions, he pointed out.

"I have concerns with this scope of this specific review, if that indicates a part on the county to regulate air quality," Getts told the supervisors. "That's the job of state and federal agencies."

Searle replied, "I have no intention of taking jurisdiction over air quality, but I do want to look at it properly, however."