No to coal in Surry
No to coal in Surry (DailPress.com)
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which is seeking approval for a massive, coal-burning power plant in Surry County, serves fewer than 300,000 homes in Virginia. Those homes need a reliable source of power, but this plant would exact an environmental cost far out of scale to the number of people who would benefit.
Carbon dioxide: By the company’s public projections, the plant would discharge 14.6 million tons a year into the air. To put that in scale, based on EPA numbers, it’s equivalent to the annual output of 2.5 million average passenger cars.
• Mercury: ODEC’s projections say the plant would discharge at least 100 pounds of mercury. Many lakes, streams and rivers are already contaminated by dissipated mercury, and the more the state tests, the more warnings it issues about eating fish from contaminated waters, because mercury causes neurological damage and retardation. The Blackwater River in Surry and Isle of Wight is already contaminated.
• NOX emissions: Nitrogen oxide emissions are a major source of smog and haze, air pollution and acid rain. The plant would put 3,000 tons into the air yearly.
• Health effects: Human bodies pay the price for “clean coal.” The coal plant would mean more asthma attacks, more chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, more heart attacks, more deaths.
BOLD emphasis mine
So much more in this very well done DailyPress.com OP-Ed article: No to coal in Surry. Must read.
Thanks for the link Betsy.
EDIT: Here’s my comment that I posted on the article:
Excellent article. Thanks so much to whoever wrote it. When I think about living way less than a mile from the proposed Cypress Creek Power Station (“station” don’t you love how they try to get away from using the words coal plant?) it just makes me sick…just to think about it coming here to Dendron. ALL of Dendron will be in the ’stack shadow’ 0.6 to 1 mile from it. This will not only be a health hazard for all in Hampton Roads, but a major stress to the people of Dendron 24/7 – pollution, noise, light! Many are not thinking about all the negative impacts this coal plant will have on the tiny Town of Dendron — all they can see are dollar signs. I can understand that to some extent, I really can, especially in a depressed economy, however, the people of Dendron will have to live with this for a very long time-in their face! Wish those on the Surry Board of Supervisors would think about living less than ONE MILE from this thing. At the last Board of Supervisors meeting, there was mention that if the coal plant moved to Sussex County, then Sussex would get the benefits of having it instead of Surry. Well, having the coal plant in Sussex wouldn’t be a whole lot better (Sussex location no where near as close to a town), but it wouldn’t be 0.6 to 1 mile from their home, like it will be to us here in Dendron. As an old TechTV commercial spot was want to say, “Think about that!”
