An interested Bowie resident forwarded me the URL for this website: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/colossal_magnet.php. It's a local Cochise county company in Sierra Vista that is developing maglev wind turbine power generators. It's a great idea, a big improvement over standard windmills, using technology that has been tested and used successfully in Asia for many years. It can generate more electricity in less than 100 acres than conventional windmills can generate in 64,000 acres, and without polluting.
From their website:
The Maglev Wind Turbine Power Plant contributes to the reduction of pollution by eliminating our dependency of fossil fueled power plants. Since carbon dioxide is absorbed by trees, our Maglev Wind Turbine Power Plant can offset as much as 1,750,000 acres of forest. Another analogy used, is to equate the energy generated by our Power Plant to the amount generated by a barrel of oil. Maglev Wind Turbine Power Plant can generate the same amount of energy annually as 5,475,000 barrels of oil.
MAGLEV WIND TURBINE will offset emissions (pollution) from other regional sources of electricity. If we do not install our Power Plant and generate approximately 8.75 TWh of renewable energy annually, the same amount of energy generated from oil, coal or natural gas would create the following estimated emissions :
8.7 Billion pounds of Carbon Dioxide
18,000,000 pounds of Nitrogen Oxides
50,400,000 pounds of Sulfur Dioxide
* Based on location and wind velocity estimates
Data Source for Emissions Calculated: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/egrid/pdfs/state.pdf
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Some sort of response from the power company
In response to my follow-up request, the Southwest Power rep. sent me this email. He still hasn't said where he actually will be, but if he does, I'll post it here. Maybe we can ask him why he can't answer any of our questions in writing.
Date: July 25, 2007 11:23:11 AM PDT
Subject: RE: Bowie Inquiry
Dear Ms. van der Pas,
I travel to Bowie and various parts of Cochise County several times a month. My next scheduled visit in Bowie is set for the morning of August 13th. I am available, should you want to meet and discuss our project.
Respectfully,
R. Martin Bailey
Real Estate Manager
Southwestern Power Group
3610 N 44th Street, Suite 250
Phoenix, AZ 85018
Office 602-808-2004
Fax 602-808-2099
Date: July 25, 2007 11:23:11 AM PDT
Subject: RE: Bowie Inquiry
Dear Ms. van der Pas,
I travel to Bowie and various parts of Cochise County several times a month. My next scheduled visit in Bowie is set for the morning of August 13th. I am available, should you want to meet and discuss our project.
Respectfully,
R. Martin Bailey
Real Estate Manager
Southwestern Power Group
3610 N 44th Street, Suite 250
Phoenix, AZ 85018
Office 602-808-2004
Fax 602-808-2099
Monday, July 16, 2007
More on pollution--is it really possible to control it?
A nice lady in Willcox emailed to let me know about a website that answers a lot of my questions about coal gasification. It is http://www.energyjustice.net/coal/igcc/.
These are the pollutants that you get from coal:
sulfur dioxides (SOx, or acid rain)
carbon dioxide (CO2) (the major source of global warming)
mercury (one of the most toxic substances known)
nitrogen oxides (NOx) (creates permanent lung damage, among other things)
plus some others like arsenic and selenium, which go into the air.
What they want to build in Bowie is a plant that uses IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle). This is a system that gasifies coal into synthetic gas (syngas) to power a gas turbine. The heat from the gas turbine exhaust then generates steam to run a steam turbine. They say that process will make it possible to capture much of the pollutants before they are released into the air.
A large coal-fired power plant like this one emits the CO2 equivalent from one million SUVs. Coal-fired electrical generation has been the largest single source of pollution in the U.S. (and the world) for over 30 years. They say that they can capture and recycle the CO2, but there are no concrete plans to do so, and there are no currently operating plants that have succeeded in doing this.
This website quotes testimony from an IGCC veteran Stephen D. Jenkins, dated January 2007 to the Florida Public Service Commission. Steve Jenkins, who has over 30 years of experience in the power industry, including IGCC power plants, gave an in-depth analysis of the IGCC technology for CO2 capture and sequestration.
"IGCC is not inherently CO2 capture ready without significant additions, modifications and impacts to its efficiency and output. I have heard many people apply the term 'CO2 capture ready' to IGCC without really inderstanding what is involved, both technically and financially, to implement these significant changes. Just because people call it CO2 capture ready does not mean that it is."
The entire report, which describes the IGCC technology in some detail, is available at:
http://www.mncoalgasplant.com/stevejenkins-fgpp-psctestimony.pdf
These are the pollutants that you get from coal:
sulfur dioxides (SOx, or acid rain)
carbon dioxide (CO2) (the major source of global warming)
mercury (one of the most toxic substances known)
nitrogen oxides (NOx) (creates permanent lung damage, among other things)
plus some others like arsenic and selenium, which go into the air.
What they want to build in Bowie is a plant that uses IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle). This is a system that gasifies coal into synthetic gas (syngas) to power a gas turbine. The heat from the gas turbine exhaust then generates steam to run a steam turbine. They say that process will make it possible to capture much of the pollutants before they are released into the air.
A large coal-fired power plant like this one emits the CO2 equivalent from one million SUVs. Coal-fired electrical generation has been the largest single source of pollution in the U.S. (and the world) for over 30 years. They say that they can capture and recycle the CO2, but there are no concrete plans to do so, and there are no currently operating plants that have succeeded in doing this.
This website quotes testimony from an IGCC veteran Stephen D. Jenkins, dated January 2007 to the Florida Public Service Commission. Steve Jenkins, who has over 30 years of experience in the power industry, including IGCC power plants, gave an in-depth analysis of the IGCC technology for CO2 capture and sequestration.
"IGCC is not inherently CO2 capture ready without significant additions, modifications and impacts to its efficiency and output. I have heard many people apply the term 'CO2 capture ready' to IGCC without really inderstanding what is involved, both technically and financially, to implement these significant changes. Just because people call it CO2 capture ready does not mean that it is."
The entire report, which describes the IGCC technology in some detail, is available at:
http://www.mncoalgasplant.com/stevejenkins-fgpp-psctestimony.pdf
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
What Southwest Power has to say
Yesterday I sent the following email to Jessica Munoz, the contact person indicated on the Bowie Power Station's website.
Dear SouthWest Power,
I live in Bowie, and I have some questions I hope you can answer. I know lots of people here are really excited about the possibility of community revival due to the power plant you are building. On your website and in your publicity you do make it sound like a good thing. Still we all know that plants like this are notorious polluters of air and water, and can destroy the living standards of a community, so I don't believe that our community should rush headlong into agreement without determining the facts. And on a larger scale, there's the much more serious damage to the atmosphere from creating so much CO2, especially at a time when governments all over the world are trying create legislation to cut down CO2 emissions.
In discussion with some of my neighbors, we found that we still have some questions that have not yet been answered, and we were hoping you could help us out.
1) What are the actual benefits to the community and are these spelled out somewhere? Will there be any new jobs for Bowie residents? What kinds of jobs will be available?
2) You have stated that there is a plan to recycle the CO2 emissions by growing tomatoes. Are there any firm plans to do this or is it still speculative? Will these plans be be implemented before operations begin?
3) On your website you say that you will be releasing 3.6 million tons of CO2 annually and we are very concerned about global warming. It seems unrealistic to expect that you can dispose of that immense amount by growing tomatoes. Can you give us the actual figures for what percentage of the CO2 you will definitely be able to recycle and how much will go into the atmosphere to contribute to global warming?
4) Are there buyers already arranged for the ash, slag, mercury, and sulfur, etc? What will you do with these by-products if the buyer drops out?
5) Are there any statistics on the safety of storing mercury in railroad cars? What if they leak? It is our understanding that mercury is toxic in parts per million--what about the residue that will remain after the railroad cars have been emptied?
6) Have you done an environmental impact report, and is it available for public review? What are the Arizona state and federal regulations concerning monitoring your EPA and safety standards? In other words, how often is the plant being tested for compliance with environmental and safety standards? And who conducts those inspections?
7) Is the trucking route for transport of toxic by-products to the railroad going to be made public in case the public thinks the route is too close to schools, homes, wells, etc.?
8) It was stated by you that your presence in Bowie would bring about "spinoff businesses, services, and industries", and these would be very welcome by Bowie residents. We are concerned though that only outsiders would have the means to do this in a realistic way. Would you be open to creating a loan office to help the local residents with small loans they can use to start these spinoff industries? It would be a very real way of helping the community, it would create goodwill, and it would not cost anything in the long run.
Thank you for your consideration and we hope to hear from you soon.
With best wishes,
Elizabeth van der Pas
July 13--I got a response from Martin Bailey:
Dear Ms. van der Pas:
Thank you for your recent inquiry about the Bowie Power Station. I would invite you to review the various articles at the BowiePower.com website for more details about our facility. I am usually in the Bowie community very two weeks, so if you would like to meet and discuss our project I would pleased to meet with you. My email address is mbailey@southwesternpower.com
Respectfully,
R. Martin Bailey
Real Estate Manager
Southwestern Power Group
3610 N 44th Street, Suite 250
Phoenix, AZ 85018
Office 602-808-2004
Fax 602-808-2099
cc: David Getts (DGetts@southwesternpower.com), and Tom Wray (TWray@southwesternpower.com)
Dear SouthWest Power,
I live in Bowie, and I have some questions I hope you can answer. I know lots of people here are really excited about the possibility of community revival due to the power plant you are building. On your website and in your publicity you do make it sound like a good thing. Still we all know that plants like this are notorious polluters of air and water, and can destroy the living standards of a community, so I don't believe that our community should rush headlong into agreement without determining the facts. And on a larger scale, there's the much more serious damage to the atmosphere from creating so much CO2, especially at a time when governments all over the world are trying create legislation to cut down CO2 emissions.
In discussion with some of my neighbors, we found that we still have some questions that have not yet been answered, and we were hoping you could help us out.
1) What are the actual benefits to the community and are these spelled out somewhere? Will there be any new jobs for Bowie residents? What kinds of jobs will be available?
2) You have stated that there is a plan to recycle the CO2 emissions by growing tomatoes. Are there any firm plans to do this or is it still speculative? Will these plans be be implemented before operations begin?
3) On your website you say that you will be releasing 3.6 million tons of CO2 annually and we are very concerned about global warming. It seems unrealistic to expect that you can dispose of that immense amount by growing tomatoes. Can you give us the actual figures for what percentage of the CO2 you will definitely be able to recycle and how much will go into the atmosphere to contribute to global warming?
4) Are there buyers already arranged for the ash, slag, mercury, and sulfur, etc? What will you do with these by-products if the buyer drops out?
5) Are there any statistics on the safety of storing mercury in railroad cars? What if they leak? It is our understanding that mercury is toxic in parts per million--what about the residue that will remain after the railroad cars have been emptied?
6) Have you done an environmental impact report, and is it available for public review? What are the Arizona state and federal regulations concerning monitoring your EPA and safety standards? In other words, how often is the plant being tested for compliance with environmental and safety standards? And who conducts those inspections?
7) Is the trucking route for transport of toxic by-products to the railroad going to be made public in case the public thinks the route is too close to schools, homes, wells, etc.?
8) It was stated by you that your presence in Bowie would bring about "spinoff businesses, services, and industries", and these would be very welcome by Bowie residents. We are concerned though that only outsiders would have the means to do this in a realistic way. Would you be open to creating a loan office to help the local residents with small loans they can use to start these spinoff industries? It would be a very real way of helping the community, it would create goodwill, and it would not cost anything in the long run.
Thank you for your consideration and we hope to hear from you soon.
With best wishes,
Elizabeth van der Pas
July 13--I got a response from Martin Bailey:
Dear Ms. van der Pas:
Thank you for your recent inquiry about the Bowie Power Station. I would invite you to review the various articles at the BowiePower.com website for more details about our facility. I am usually in the Bowie community very two weeks, so if you would like to meet and discuss our project I would pleased to meet with you. My email address is mbailey@southwesternpower.com
Respectfully,
R. Martin Bailey
Real Estate Manager
Southwestern Power Group
3610 N 44th Street, Suite 250
Phoenix, AZ 85018
Office 602-808-2004
Fax 602-808-2099
cc: David Getts (DGetts@southwesternpower.com), and Tom Wray (TWray@southwesternpower.com)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
More information
I emailed the reporter who wrote the article that was quoted on the Bowie Power website, and got a response right away. I hadn't heard about it, but the power company hosted a barbecue for Bowie residents on Saturday, and talked about the benefits of having a power plant in the neighborhood. Here's the link to the article:
Sierra Vista Herald July 9, 2007
It looks as if people here feel that it will bring in revenue to revitalize Bowie, and so there's a lot of support. But still the power company doesn't really have a clear plan for disposing of the by-products, and the board of supervisors is still undecided.
But maybe it doesn't have to be all or nothing. It might be better for us to try to work with the power company to create plans that we all feel comfortable with for an ecological and clean operation, because the problem won't be solved by pushing the company out to pollute somewhere else. And part of my thinking in all of this is that even if it does go through, the karma of the effort to help create a clean environment will help create that very result.
It seems that the input of Bowie residents will make a difference to the board of supervisors. One of them has already responded to me, and I think the others are open to hearing from the locals. So please do email them.
Cochise County Board of Supervisors
1415 West Melody Lane Bldg. B
Bisbee, AZ 85603
Phone: (520) 432-9200
Fax: (520) 432-5016
Supervisors:
Pat Call: pcall@co.cochise.az.us
Paul Newman: pnewman@co.cochise.az.us
Richard Searle: rsearle@co.cochise.az.us
Cochise County Planning and Zoning department, c/o Susan Buchan
1415 Melody Lane, Building E.
Bisbee, Arizona 85603
Email: pnz@co.cochise.az.us
Phone (520)432-9240
Fax (520)432-9278
Sierra Vista Herald July 9, 2007
It looks as if people here feel that it will bring in revenue to revitalize Bowie, and so there's a lot of support. But still the power company doesn't really have a clear plan for disposing of the by-products, and the board of supervisors is still undecided.
But maybe it doesn't have to be all or nothing. It might be better for us to try to work with the power company to create plans that we all feel comfortable with for an ecological and clean operation, because the problem won't be solved by pushing the company out to pollute somewhere else. And part of my thinking in all of this is that even if it does go through, the karma of the effort to help create a clean environment will help create that very result.
It seems that the input of Bowie residents will make a difference to the board of supervisors. One of them has already responded to me, and I think the others are open to hearing from the locals. So please do email them.
Cochise County Board of Supervisors
1415 West Melody Lane Bldg. B
Bisbee, AZ 85603
Phone: (520) 432-9200
Fax: (520) 432-5016
Supervisors:
Pat Call: pcall@co.cochise.az.us
Paul Newman: pnewman@co.cochise.az.us
Richard Searle: rsearle@co.cochise.az.us
Cochise County Planning and Zoning department, c/o Susan Buchan
1415 Melody Lane, Building E.
Bisbee, Arizona 85603
Email: pnz@co.cochise.az.us
Phone (520)432-9240
Fax (520)432-9278
The issue--an introduction
We've been hearing for a long time that a company called SouthWest Power is planning to build a 600-megawatt power plant 2 miles from the center of our town of Bowie. Maybe won't be a problem at all, but the idea makes me nervous, and so I thought I'd ask around to see what I can find out, what the impact will be on the community and the environment, and what we can do about it, if it does seem that it might be a problem. It got to be a lot of information--too much to organize by email, so I'm going to put whatever I come up with in this blog. This post is my original email to friends, soliciting help and information, which I sent out a couple of days ago. Since then I have got more information, which I will post next.
Their website is www.bowiepower.com, and I am getting most of my information from that. There are a lot of pictures and charts, etc. It might be slanted, but even what they say in their own favor alarms me enough.
They say they are planning to use a "cleaner" process that produces gases from pulverized coal and then uses that as fuel to create steam. They mention two other power plants that use this process, each of which generates only 250 megawatts (which is less than half the size of the one proposed for Bowie). They say they are cleaner than normal coal-burning plants, so I looked them up on Google. There is a website that talks about these plants. One is in a swamp in Florida (not 2 miles from the center of a town like Bowie). They say that this plant emits 85% fewer nitrogen oxides (which they say create acid rain, ozone, and a toxic gas that can sear lung tissue and create permanent damage) than a typical plant. So if you do the math, it works out that the Bowie plant will emit more than a third of the amount of a normal coal-burning plant.
The same article says that the "clean" Florida plant emits 20 times more nitrogen oxide than a plant that burns natural gas, which is what they were originally planning to use as a fuel in Bowie before they decided to use coal. So according to my math, this would mean that the "clean" Bowie plant will emit 48 times the amount of nitrogen oxide as a natural gas plant. Which is not to say that we want a natural gas plant either.
The same website also says that even with the cleanest technologies, a coal-burning plant poses more of a global warming problem than a plant using natural gas or oil.
They power plant's website says that they are planning to use sub-bituminous coal as fuel. They say there are four kinds of coal, and this is the second-worst kind of coal in terms of CO2, mercury, arsenic and mercury emissions. That doesn't sound good to me. They say the different kinds of coals can have other elements as well, some toxic. They plan to have evaporation ponds to isolate the toxic slag, which they hope to sell for road construction (although they don't have any buyers yet). Plans are in the works to modify the existing aquifer protection permit as required.
The Bowie website says that our plant will produce 3.6 million tons of CO2 per year. For comparison, an average mid-sized car creates 3.55 tons per year, so this plant will produce about as much CO2 as a million cars. This is the main gas that is creating global warming. SouthWest Power's website says that they are thinking of getting someone to build a greenhouse to use some of it, but it's in the maybe stage. They are talking about maybe being able to capture most of it, but don't seem to to have any firm plans to actually do it.
Cochise county is already ranked among the worst 10% of all counties in terms of non-cancer risking air pollution (whatever that is). Most of this comes from our other power plant, Apache Generating Station, which is a 520 megawatt power station southeast of Tucson.
The population of Bowie is more than 25% children aged 19 and under. Compared with Arizona in general (13%), Bowie also has a disproportionate number of people over the age of 65: (18.8%). These two populations are the most susceptible to damage from air pollution. And just for the record, the median household income is $52,232, compared to the Arizona median of $185,400. So these are mostly people who can't afford a lot of options.
There are more scary things in the website, but you get the idea.
The county supervisors met about it in April and haven't decided yet, and they are planning to have another meeting in Bowie or Willcox so people in the community can come. There's a good description of the meeting on this website.
Their website is www.bowiepower.com, and I am getting most of my information from that. There are a lot of pictures and charts, etc. It might be slanted, but even what they say in their own favor alarms me enough.
They say they are planning to use a "cleaner" process that produces gases from pulverized coal and then uses that as fuel to create steam. They mention two other power plants that use this process, each of which generates only 250 megawatts (which is less than half the size of the one proposed for Bowie). They say they are cleaner than normal coal-burning plants, so I looked them up on Google. There is a website that talks about these plants. One is in a swamp in Florida (not 2 miles from the center of a town like Bowie). They say that this plant emits 85% fewer nitrogen oxides (which they say create acid rain, ozone, and a toxic gas that can sear lung tissue and create permanent damage) than a typical plant. So if you do the math, it works out that the Bowie plant will emit more than a third of the amount of a normal coal-burning plant.
The same article says that the "clean" Florida plant emits 20 times more nitrogen oxide than a plant that burns natural gas, which is what they were originally planning to use as a fuel in Bowie before they decided to use coal. So according to my math, this would mean that the "clean" Bowie plant will emit 48 times the amount of nitrogen oxide as a natural gas plant. Which is not to say that we want a natural gas plant either.
The same website also says that even with the cleanest technologies, a coal-burning plant poses more of a global warming problem than a plant using natural gas or oil.
They power plant's website says that they are planning to use sub-bituminous coal as fuel. They say there are four kinds of coal, and this is the second-worst kind of coal in terms of CO2, mercury, arsenic and mercury emissions. That doesn't sound good to me. They say the different kinds of coals can have other elements as well, some toxic. They plan to have evaporation ponds to isolate the toxic slag, which they hope to sell for road construction (although they don't have any buyers yet). Plans are in the works to modify the existing aquifer protection permit as required.
The Bowie website says that our plant will produce 3.6 million tons of CO2 per year. For comparison, an average mid-sized car creates 3.55 tons per year, so this plant will produce about as much CO2 as a million cars. This is the main gas that is creating global warming. SouthWest Power's website says that they are thinking of getting someone to build a greenhouse to use some of it, but it's in the maybe stage. They are talking about maybe being able to capture most of it, but don't seem to to have any firm plans to actually do it.
Cochise county is already ranked among the worst 10% of all counties in terms of non-cancer risking air pollution (whatever that is). Most of this comes from our other power plant, Apache Generating Station, which is a 520 megawatt power station southeast of Tucson.
The population of Bowie is more than 25% children aged 19 and under. Compared with Arizona in general (13%), Bowie also has a disproportionate number of people over the age of 65: (18.8%). These two populations are the most susceptible to damage from air pollution. And just for the record, the median household income is $52,232, compared to the Arizona median of $185,400. So these are mostly people who can't afford a lot of options.
There are more scary things in the website, but you get the idea.
The county supervisors met about it in April and haven't decided yet, and they are planning to have another meeting in Bowie or Willcox so people in the community can come. There's a good description of the meeting on this website.
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