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Stop ODEC’s Massive Coal Plant in Surry County, Hampton Roads, VA
Even as the rest of Virginia is moving forward toward a clean energy future, the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) is heading backwards by proposing a massive new $6 billion, 1500 megawatt coal plant in Surry County, within the small town of Dendron, located just 18 miles from Williamsburg, Virginia.
 The proposed plant will have a major impact on the Hampton Roads region, in the form of:
- Additional atmospheric ozone, which will further burden nearby areas already in nonattainment;
- Additional acid deposition, which will negatively effect the flora and fauna in nearby parks and scenic areas;
- Additional mercury deposition, which will further burden already struggling streams and rivers, which Virginia DEQ has placed off limits to fishing due to excess mercury that has accumulated in fish populations.
- Conventional and toxic air pollutants will decrease air quality, increasing rates of asthma, heart attacks, emphysema, and cancer, and will negatively impact the cognitive development of children in the vicinity;
- Over the planned lifetime of the plant, it will contribute to global warming, by spilling hundreds of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is foolhardy at a moment when scientists worldwide agree that further atmospheric greenhouse gases could tip the planet into a warming cycle from which there is no escape.
- The plant’s appetite for coal will contribute to the practice of mountaintop removal mining, which is devastating the natural beauty and long-term viability of the Appalachian region.
This Hampton Roads area coal plant will involve the following:
- Two boilers, two turbines, and two generators;
- Water intake and discharge to the nearby James River;
- Fly ash disposal on-site in fly ash dumps and slurry ponds, or transferred via truck and/or trains;
- New railroad spurs and off-loading facilities;
- The highway near the plant will be expanded to meet the facility’s requirements;
- Transmission lines bulked up, and interconnections built from the plant to those lines;
- Plant in generation 24-7, and generating traffic to and from the plant at all times, accordingly.
The proposed plant will have a major impact on Surry County and the town of Dendron:
- It will change the rural character of the area, as expressed in the comprehensive plan;
- It will make living in the vicinity of the site less attractive, inviting more industrial users to the area;
- New highway infrastructure will bring more traffic to and through the town.
- 24-7 operation will disturb the peace and quiet that the residents cherish;
- Toxic air pollutants, such as mercury and dioxin, will negatively affect the livestock of the farmers in the vicinity;
- Constant traffic from coal trucks and trains, and trucks and trains taking care of fly ash disposal, will add fugitive emissions to the atmosphere, limiting people’s ability to spend time outdoors and keep their homes clean;
- If fly ash is disposed of on site or nearby, the ground water will suffer from heavy metals that leach out of unlined slurry ponds, and the area will be exposed to the dangers of deadly fly ash spills such as that which occurred in Kingsport TN at Christmas 2008;
- Property values of people living in the vicinity of the plant can be expected to decline;
- Many of these same impacts would be experienced if the proposed power plant is relocated to Sussex County which is the back up site to Dendron in Surry County.
Alternatives to building this plant must be considered, including:
- Having ODEC institute a systemwide energy efficiency program, which could cost-effectively shave 27% of its projected electricity generation levels by 2025;
- Having ODEC and its member cooperatives encourage and enable distributed generation of renewable energy, in the form of solar, wind, or combined heat and power, by instituting net metering rules and procedures that make it easy to hook distributed generators up to the grid, and by offering incentives to home- and landowners that invest in distributed renewable energy;
- Have ODEC purchase any additional electricity needed from the grid.
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