Not your father’s coal plant

This is in response to Maggie Hess and the others who object to the Wise County power plant. Most of those objecting are too young to remember the old coke ovens. All major coal companies like Norton Coal, Dorchester, Hawthorne, Esserville, Glamorgan and many more had 50 to 100 ovens bellowing out tons of black smoke 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 50 or more years.

I know this because I was raised in Norton. You could dust a table top in the morning and rub your finger over it in the evening and your finger would be coal black. No one objected to this because it was a way of life and it put food on the table.

People who have never been around a modern power plant have no idea how it operates. Many by-products are removed from the smoke and about 90 percent of the fly ash is removed by electronic precipitators. Very little, if any, smoke is seen leaving the smoke stack. I know this because I worked at a plant that built equipment for power plants.

A power plant in Wise County would put many people to work and would boost the economy.

C.V. Braswell
Bristol, Tenn.