Wednesday, August 8, 2001

This is in response to [Fayette County Commission Chairman Greg] Dunn's letter about the proposed power plant. I understand the issues residents have against the proposed plant, but I also understand the power plant's side as well. The main points he seems to want to focus on are the pollution and location of the plant.

As a student in chemical engineering, I recently spent an entire semester doing an in-depth project on power plants. Since the bulk of the public has not been afforded this same opportunity, they depend heavily on others to give them real facts, and for those individuals [to] not be totally for, nor totally against such an idea.

If one had the time to actually do some in depth research on the subject, one would realize the tremendous advancements the power industry has made in the past few years in production efficiencies and emission reductions.

It's difficult to remove the picture of those dirty old coal-burning plants that spew clouds of pollution, such as one owned by Georgia Power in Coweta County, but even the new V-21 coal plants burn approximately 80-95 percent cleaner.

The advancements in emission recovery over the past years have been extreme. New technologies, that could possibly diminish the nitrous oxide emissions to negligible amounts before they even leave the stacks, could even be in place by the time the plant would near completion.

The comparison to the number of cars is excessive in regard to amount of emissions produced by the plant. In addition, the emissions released at the level they diffuse to such a small reading in ppm's (parts per million) that it's negligible and has little to no effect. With the proposed area being by several dozen car dealerships and near an interstate, the nitrous oxide would most likely not even be detectable.

Besides perceived pollution, the "not in my backyard" argument is an obvious concern. I understand the resistance to having a power plant down your street. I have viewed the web site devoted to the opposition of the plant. The site has a map of "other possible locations" for the plant. Are those people going to be any more eager to have this situation? Or are there plans in the works for some of the sites already?

Both are good questions, but no one around here has the answers to them. The disadvantage to the homeowners in the area is obviously the fact that they live right along where one of the main natural gas lines crosses Georgia. From the power company's perspective, it's simply a business decision.

There's one more question that I have not seen answered, though. What is the zoning for the land that is involved in this matter? This answer would seem to have just a little bit of relevance in this discussion. I leave the rest up to you.

My only other suggestion is that if the opposition to the plant succeeds, those who sincerely opposed it because of their concerns about the possible pollution join the fight to clean up the plant in Coweta that is a current and real health hazard.

Brad Apking

Fayetteville

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