By Jared Fields
Abilene Reporter-News

Pollution and future water supply concerns dominated discussions Tuesday evening at an anti-Tenaska gathering at the Abilene Public Library.

Jeff Haseltine said he is worried about more than the up to 2 million gallons of treated wastewater per day requested for the proposed $3.5 billion coal-fired energy plant near Sweetwater.

Haseltine, organizer of the "Abilenians Against Tenaska" group, said even if the proposed Cedar Ridge Reservoir is built to supply Abilene with water, he is concerned the water could be polluted from the power plant upstream.

"If Tenaska had looked for a place that was in the very center of the watershed for the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, this is where they would have chosen," he said. "One of the arguments we’re making is it doesn’t make any sense at all to help develop a source of pollution that we know will impact the proposed (Cedar Ridge) Reservoir for our future water."

Whitney Root, whose family lives near the proposed plant site, said she is concerned for possible pollution of her family’s land.

"A big concern for us is air pollution, of course," she said. "But there are other issues like noise pollution, light pollution and the degradation of property values."

Tenaska officials have said Abilene would receive an economic boost of about $145 million during construction of the proposed plant. However, Haseltine said that economic boost would not be worth the negative effect the plant could have on Abilene’s water supply.

"I think if we need the water, then let’s at least protect it, not plan to pollute it before we even build it," Haseltine said.

Mayor Norm Archibald has said the City Council will take up the issue of selling treated wastewater to Tenaska sometime next month. With a study, the city has determined that enough water exists to meet Tenaska’s, and Abilene’s, needs over the 50 years of the plant.

If the City Council votes not to sell water to Tenaska, the plant’s process could be slowed down, or stopped, Haseltine said.

"I only need four people in Abilene to be on my side," he said, referring to the number for a majority vote on the City Council.

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Jeff Haseltine, Guest
Abilene Reporter-News

In chess, a pawn sacrifice can be good for the cause. But it’s bad for the pawn.

And Abilene is just a pawn in the high-stakes chess game between the coal industry and the New York based Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Tenaska was quick to trumpet their recent agreement with the EDF: Tenaska’s plant "will contain equipment designed to capture at least 85 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2)" and the EDF will withdraw its opposition to the air quality permit.

The EDF is willing to gamble — using our water — that the yet-to-be-tested carbon capture technology will, against serious odds, turn out to be an effective stopgap measure in reducing fossil fuel emissions and slowing global warming. And, of course, Tenaska is quite willing to play the game if it will make their air permit application process go smoother and their profits show up sooner.

I’m all for noble causes, but this move isn’t good for Abilene. If you really are a dyed-in-the-wool climate change activist, you might have reason for supporting the Tenaska experiment just to see if there’s any hope for this unproven technology.

But if you don’t believe in global warming, it doesn’t make sense to surrender two million gallons per day of your own community’s water for the next fifty years in the name of climate change science — which is exactly what the EDF wants us to do.

Whichever side of the global warming debate you’re on, are you willing to pump away that much of our future strategic water either to help the Environmental Defense Fund see a test of carbon capture technology or to benefit Tenaska by pumping profits back to their headquarters in Nebraska?

Just like a pawn on a chessboard, Abilene is under pressure from both sides. Tenaska paid for a local study that they are using to wave “pie in the sky" economic promises in the face of our business community, and the EDF is seeking to calm down local environmentalists by sending word from their Park Avenue offices: “Let’s give it a test."

Unlike the lowly pawn, though, we have the right to choose whether or not to be a part of this match. We can and we should say no to the water contract, no to Tenaska, and no to the Environmental Defense Fund’s experiment. When the stakes are 50 years’ worth of scarce water, the people who actually live here can’t afford to play games.

Jeff Haseltine is associate dean of Arts and Sciences at Abilene Christian University, and has lived with his family in Abilene for over 20 years.

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KRLD News Radio 1080

A coal plant hearing today will have a new environmental twist. It’s the first time that a hearing on a new coal fired power plant will take testimony on the green house gas effect of the plant. The Tenaska plant being proposed near Abilene would capture CO2 emissions but Public Citizen’s Ryan Rittenhouse says that CO2 wouldn’t be stored at the plant. " The CO2 is not guaranteed to stay in the ground out there. Tenaska isn’t the people that are going to be pumping it underground out there. They’re just selling it off." Rittenhouse says it would be sold to oil drillers in the Permian Basin to force more oil out of the ground and he says there’s no guarantee that it would stay in the ground out there once the oil is gone.

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By Emily A. Peters
Abilene Reporter-News

Nothing currently limits the amount of carbon dioxide a factory can puff into the atmosphere, a consultant with the Tenaska power company said at a hearing Thursday.

But federal regulations limiting such greenhouse gases go into effect soon — Jan. 2, 2011, to be exact.

Tenaska officials expect to have an air quality permit in hand for a $3.5 billion plant near Sweetwater before those regulations kick in, but they still asked environmental consultant William Campbell to suggest a CO2 limit for the Sweetwater project, called Trailblazer.

Campbell brought his emission limit suggestions to Thursday’s hearing, where environmental groups are opposing the air quality permit Tenaska seeks from the Texas Environmental Quality Control to build Trailblazer.

"I don’t agree a plant should have a CO2 limit because it’s not required," Cambell said, but at Tenaska’s request, he calculated Trailblazer should emit no more than 8.02 million tons a year of carbon dioxide equivalent from its boilers.

No authority will keep Trailblazer from exceeding that level.

He noted that is just "speculation" considering Trailblazer has little precedence to follow. Tenaska boasts Trailblazer’s revolutionary technology will capture 85 to 90 percent of that CO2, and Tenaska will sell it to Permian Basin oil companies for drilling purposes.

Attorneys for opposition groups — the Sierra Club and the Multi-County Coalition — pointed out that emission figure does not include emissions from other parts of the plant beyond the boilers. They also noted other factories are voluntarily offering to comply with CO2 limits.

Tenaska also called a toxicology expert to testify, and Multi-County Coalition attorney Wendi Hammond asked about potential harmful effects of emissions from amine chemical compounds proposed for the plant.

The toxicologist said early calculations didn’t reveal high enough levels of potentially harmful emissions to require Tenaska to mention them in the permit application. Studies of downwind effects of the chemical are not required for the TCEQ permit, another expert testified.

Tenaska has no more witnesses for the hearing and TCEQ witnesses will testify next, including some who helped Tenaska prepare its air quality permit application.

On Monday, opposition groups will present their witnesses, who are expected to discuss global warming and an alternative system for breaking down coal.

Four Big Country landowners attended the meetings and more are expected to rotate through as the hearings continue through next week. They won’t personally testify, but they are represented by the Multi-County Coalition attorney.

As the trial proceeds in Austin, other controversy is stirring around Texas air quality control:

Last week, the EPA stripped TCEQ of the authority to issue an operating permit for a Corpus Christi refinery. EPA warned federal regulators could overtake TCEQ’s air-permitting process for other facilities as well.

Gov. Rick Perry accused the EPA of "seek[ing] to destroy Texas’s successful clean air program and threaten tens of thousands of good Texas jobs in the process."

Wednesday, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice sent notice of intent to sue the EPA unless it enforced ozone standards in Texas more strictly.

© 2010 Abilene Reporter-News. All rights reserved.

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L.G. Foster, Abilene
Letter to the Editor, Abilene Reporter-News

I have heard arguments and opinions both for and against the proposed Tenaska coal-fired power plant. Why does the company coal mine (states away) desire Sweetwater for its processing location?

If the product is to be used in the oil industry west of here, why not "stimulate jobs" closer to the area of the oil fields?

Maybe it’s because that area does not have the water resources necessary for Tenaska’s needs — which brings me to a major concern for Abilene and surrounding communities that get their water from the city of Abilene.

Having lived in Abilene most of my life, I can attest to the fact that summer droughts are common. Do we have a drop to spare?

Why does Mayor Archibald chide property owners for using too much water on too many days? A little water running a few yards from your property line will get you a water violation fine. Yet we have 2 million extra gallons to sell to Tenaska each day, drought or not, every day of the year for the next 50 years?

I urge the City Council members to be wise! Don’t contract to sell something that there is no guarantee we can provide without seriously effecting the quality of life in our city and the surrounding communities. Such shortsightedness is the cause of the current economic conditions in our country and across Europe.

© 2010 Abilene Reporter-News. All rights reserved.

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