A ruling is expected next week from the Richmond Circuit Court on whether air permits for the power plant under construction outside St. Paul, Va., adequately limit emissions in compliance with the Clean Air Act.
The court heard arguments Friday from the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents several environmental groups seeking to have the permits invalidated.
“The plant contains no limits whatsoever on emissions of global warming pollution or carbon dioxide, nothing whatsoever, and that’s just a straight-out violation of the law,” said Cale Jaffe, one of two law center senior staff attorneys who argued the case.
Jaffe said the second permit, which deals with mercury emissions, is improper because it includes an “escape clause” that would allow Dominion Virginia Power, which is building the 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant, to ask for a looser limit. Jaffe claims the clause “is expressly designed to get around [the law].”
He said the time to prevent environmental harm is by correcting legal errors now – before the plant is built and operating.
Dominion spokesman Greg Edwards said the permits were carefully considered by the experts before they were issued for the power plant project, which is now more than one-third complete.
“The permits got a thorough consideration by the DEQ [Virginia Department of Environmental Quality] staff and the state Air Pollution Control Board over a two-year period with unprecedented public participation,” Edwards said. “It’s the most stringent permit that has ever been issued in this country for a power station of this type.”
Edwards noted that while Congress is considering regulation of carbon dioxide, no such regulation currently exists – and, for emissions that are regulated, the permits might be the most restrictive in the world.
Wise County activists opposed to the power plant and strip mining in the area were in Richmond for Friday’s hearing and delivered a letter to Gov. Tim Kaine’s office requesting intervention in a mining permit case.
“I hope the court will see that there’s a cumulative effect in Wise County on the quality of air that we breathe and will rule accordingly,” Kathy Selvage, vice president of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, said of the air permit case. Her organization is based in Big Stone Gap, Va.
“We’ve already and are continuing to suffer the effects of the [Appalachian Power] Clinch River Power Plant and have for five decades, and now they’ve [Dominion] proposed another one,” Selvage said. “It can only further deteriorate the quality of air that we breathe.”
If the air permits stand, she said, it will mean sicker people and more premature death in Southwest Virginia’s coalfields.
The letter delivered to the governor’s office asked that the permit sought for surface mining on Ison Rock Ridge, which is just outside the Appalachia town limits, be denied – or, at the very least, the public be given a chance to comment on permit revisions.
Pete Ramey, president of the group, said members have sought help from local officials for years but have not found relief from the problems caused by surface mining, which he said creates misery and danger for the communities below.
A woman who answered the phone Friday at A&G Coal, which is seeking the permit, said no one was available to comment.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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