Southern Co.'s Sneak Attack

originally published September 26, 2001

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If Athens sprawl continues, Athens-Clarke County could well become an air quality "non-attainment zone." But a power plant half a mile across the county line could freely poison everybody in Athens - exempt from the pollution restrictions that would apply to Athens-Clarke.

How can an "environmentally friendly" power plant degrade life in Athens?

Press releases say Plant Dahlberg is to be natural-gas fired, the cleanest type. It's hinted that new construction will be combined-cycle plants, the most efficient kind, a dandy idea, and very green. The impression is that the natural-gas fired combustion turbine plants will be "peakload," and will only run a few hours a year, when they're really needed.

But the huge amounts of cooling water necessary for the steam phase of the combined cycle just aren't there, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) draft operating permit for Dahlberg doesn't mention "combined cycle." That's because there are no plans for "combined cycle," only "simple cycle," which is less fuel efficient.

The press releases mention "catalytic reduction technology" - that is, the exhaust will be cleaned up using catalytic converters. This has been done in California. Again, very green. However, what is not stated is that the catalytic technology will be applied to Plant Dahlberg. The EPD draft operating permit indicates that it won't be. Disappointing information, and awfully hard to obtain, compared to the media exposure given to all the bogus "good news."

Is Dahlberg a peakload plant? No. The draft EPD permit allows each turbine to burn 3.8 BILLION cubic feet of natural gas a year. That comes to 205 days a year of full power operation. Most of the main line coal fired plants don't run that much.

Publicists and spin doctors have spoken of the taxes the plant will pay to Jackson County, contributing to "rural development." The Dahlberg turbines sound like giant stump grinders - just one may be heard miles away in the still country night. It's hard to imagine how, with all 12 going, anyone within five miles will be able to sleep, much less how that noise will stimulate desirable development of any kind.

Plant Dahlberg is huge, and getting huger. Projecting from data on other plants, and the EPD draft permit, we find its turbines are about 110,000 horsepower EACH. A phone conversation with an EPD engineer revealed that Dahlberg is permitted to produce from its combustion turbine units 1,600,000 horsepower. That's like 10,000 tractor-trailers running 24 hours a day, just four miles from the Athens perimeter.

A draft copy of Dahlberg's operating permit says right up front the plant is permitted to burn diesel fuel as a backup. But buried in the engineering language of the permit is the definition of "backup," which can be 54 days a year, 24 hours a day, of running all units on fuel oil. (It's stated each unit can run 1x10 to the 12th BTUs of fuel oil per year. Who, other than someone with an engineering background, can translate that into anything meaningful?)

Georgia has become a dumping ground for combustion turbine power plants. At present 43 are in existence, under construction, or planned, in 14 different counties. This is a peakload capacity comparable to the entire rest of the generating capacity in the state. That much peakload power isn't being used up in Georgia. So why do Georgians endure the noise and pollution of power plants that are exporting their product out of state for the benefit of far-removed stockholders?

Because Georgia lets them.

The out-of-state power companies cite "growth" (read: energy intensive sprawl) and "avoiding California-style problems" (read: smear alternative energy) as their reason for building their plants in Georgia.

Designed to take advantage of spot shortages and price spikes in electricity, there so many of these units are going on line they are creating spot shortages and price spikes for natural gas. In turn, Plant Dahlberg is equipped to take advantage of the price spikes in natural gas it will help to create.

When they've used up the available natural gas, many peakload plants, including Dahlberg, are equipped to burn cheaper fuel oil instead. Go out to "clean natural gas powered" Plant Dahlberg, and what do you see? Fuel oil tanks bigger'n hell.

There's more. The supine EPD allows the owners of Plant Dahlberg to run their own monitoring for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. If they should use fuel with sulfur in excess of what is allowed, it is up to the plant to report its own violation to the EPD. The permit doesn't say what happens if the plant violates the pollution standards. Given the long-standing record of relations between Southern Company and the EPD, it's reasonable to assume very little, if anything, will occur.

Plant Dahlberg will expel exhaust right above ground level. According to the standard handbook for mechanical engineers, a coal burning power plant of similar size would be required to have a stack 400 feet high to adequately disperse pollutants before they got back to ground level.

You're going to get to breathe the pollution from Plant Dahlberg, and probably under the worst possible conditions: during a power crisis when every other power plant is running flat out, when Dahlberg is running fuel oil, and when it's 105 degrees.

Reprinted from the June 6, 2001 edition of Flagpole.

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