Wednesday, June 19, 2002
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Wednesday, June 19, 2002 |
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Power company withdraws plant request
By JANET
McGREGOR
Members of Safeguard South Metro and those who have been fighting for over a year to stop the Williams Power Company from building a power plant are celebrating. The power company formally withdrew its request to rezone 162.59 acres on Peters Road, part of a larger parcel that extends into Union City, for a power plant. Dillard & Gallaway, LLC, acting on behalf of the Williams Company's Fulton Energy Center, LLC, informed the Fulton County Department of Environmental Community Development via letter June 11 of their intention. The company had been deferring the rezoning request from month to month. Early last year when word first became public that the Company intended to build a power plant in their neighborhood, individuals from South Fulton and North Fayette County began organizing and spreading the word. They contacted elected officials, involved local businesses and banded together to form Safeguard South Metro, Inc. Signs popped up in front of homes and businesses saying "NO Power Plant," a Web site was constructed, meetings were held and information was dispersed. Fayette County Commissioner Greg Dunn was the first on the Fayette County side to become engaged. After attending informational meetings held by Williams, conducting extensive research and talking with citizens affected by the plant throughout both counties, he began a campaign to convince the Williams Company to build elsewhere. Regarding the zoning withdrawal, Dunn stated, "This is a great victory for the citizens; they banded together on both sides of the Fayette/Fulton border and have proved that the people still have the ability to guide policy decisions of their government. I am grateful to all of them for allowing me to work at their side to ensure that our outstanding quality of life will be preserved." He continued, "The withdrawal means that Fayette and Fulton County citizens will no longer have to spend much of their time worrying about the potential health threats to their families and/or the loss of property values on their homes." Bob Crutchfield, President and CEO of Christian City, became involved once he discovered the close proximity the proposed plant would have to Christian City, a thriving senior retirement community. Crutchfield contacted Richard Ficken, Group Director for Power Development, upon hearing the rezoning was being pulled and was told, "the matter was not on the table for consideration" and that "at this time, they have no immediate plans to move forward on this matter." Ficken further assured Crutchfield that he would be contacted in advance if anything changed in this regard. He continued, "Christian City's position remains the same. We oppose the plant based on health risks and will continue to be so until some verifiable scientific evidence can be produced that addresses our health concerns. To date, nothing has been developed to refute our contention that the existence of the plant contiguous to our facilities would negatively affect the morbidity rates for our residents and increase risks for respiratory problems for older residents as well as children in the home for children and the facility for medically fragile children in the Southwest Christian Hospice." Christian City is in the process of organizing two candidate forums, one for the primary and one for the general election, and one of the issues will be the candidate's position on the power plant if it should be resurrected. According to Marian Eisenberg, acting assistant director in the Fulton County Department of Environment & Community Development, if the Williams Company chooses to pursue the rezoning of the property in the future, it would need to begin the entire process over. Signs would be posted, new permits applied for and legal notices would need to be advertised. After an extended period in which the power plant issue had seemed to disappear, it resurfaced last week. Initially the resurfacing of the rezoning on the agenda after an extended quiet period caused a flurry of activity. "I think we're all very tired of having to constantly worry about our community under attack by this Oklahoma Power Company," said James Harris, who serves on the Board of Safeguard South Metro. "I wish they'd just leave us alone and go away." "It's a relief to know they're not going to be there," said Monica Peart. "Whenever I hear an alert regarding our air quality it reminds me of how much worse it could be if the power plant were here. It's good to have the immediate threat gone."
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