Wednesday, July 18, 2001
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Wednesday, July 18, 2001 |
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Anti-power plant rhetoric is getting shrill; how about facts? All that I am hearing is how bad this power plant is going to be and the rhetoric is getting shriller. The more I hear, the more I think things may be getting carried away. Someone sent me an e-mail about how the power plant would have four 150-foot tall smokestacks. I also have heard how much noise it would make. And all of the pollution: someone said that it would produce 500 tons of nitric oxide, the equivalent of 26,000 cars. Plus all of the land it will take up. Has anybody seen a gas-fired generator? There was a picture of one in the Business Section of the Atlanta Journal for July 1. Guess what? There are no smoke stacks! Should the people that are so worried take a look at some at existing gas fired plants? I am sure that Mirant or Williams Company would gladly arrange a tour. Maybe the people of Fayette County should know how they work. Go on the Internet to http://www.swri.org/3pubs/brochure/d04/turbn/turbn.htm This gives you an in-depth view. What is this about all of the pollution? There was talk of nitric oxide pollution. I thought nitric oxide was produced every time there is a bolt of lightning and is a fertilizer. I found an EPA study on the pollution that was generated by these power plants. This pollution is in parts per million! Try the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/emc/ftir/reports/r08.html. This is a 1994 report. Do you want to see what the industry has been doing to reduce the amount of nitric oxide that the gas turbines are producing? There is a paper titled, "Reducing NOx Emissions from Gas-Fired Turbine Generators" at http://energy-tech.com/issues/html/we0102_003.html (this also includes the problems of CO and CO2 emissions). And there's a paper called "Fluid Modeling vs. Pollution" at http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/january99/features /pollution/pollution. html. I live in Newton Plantation. That's just east of where this plant is going to be. From what I have seen, I am not worried about this plant being located where it will be. I am sorry to see it going onto Fulton County's tax rolls and not our rolls. This county needs a larger more diverse tax base. Larry DeBert Riverdale (Fayette)
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