Power Plant Page
 10/15/2007 04:41 PM

Environmental Issues

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Environmental Links

EPA PM 2.5 Designations

EPA's Response to MD

Interstate Air Quality Rule

EPA

EPA Ozone Designations

Frederick County Scorecard

EastAlco Scorecard

Principal Air Pollutants
(Australian EPA)

 

Major Environmental Issues

  • Frederick County has been tentatively designated as Non-Attainment for PM 2.5.  See the top 3 reference links on the left side of the page.

  • No local Air Quality Testing has been done: Before we try to determine the impact of the power plant on the local area, real monitoring/testing should be conducted to see how 'bad' the air is already.  If the air quality if fine, then the plant will probably not have too much of an impact.  if it's already 'bad' the plant will have a measurable impact.  All of the modeling in the world is useless without real data as a starting point.  Using data from EPA monitoring sites are useless because they are not close enough.  Real monitoring should be conducted at Carroll Manor Elementary School and other local sites.

  • EPA: Before the Power Plant -- 14 Counties in Maryland (including) Frederick County have been found to not meet health standards for ozone.  The state and the community have to submit plans as to how they will become compliant with the standards.  The EPA has designated Frederick County as "nonattainment", and classified us as "Moderate".  We have until June 2010 (along with PG, Montgomery, Calvert and Charles) to reach "attainment".

  • Frederick County Historically: From scorecard.org Frederick County is already in the dirtiest/worst 10% of all counties in the US in terms of noncancer hazards from hazardous air pollutants and ranked among the dirtiest/worst 20% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of nitrogen oxides emissions.?

Environmental Questions, Answers and Comments

  • Opinion -- No additional Heavy Industry should be allowed on the EastAlco site.  This should not even be a topic of conversation until the state and county have met the requirements of the EPA, then we can begin discussions about a power plant.

  • Real-Time Monitoring:  The CPCN Application states that there will be a Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) installed on each of the HRSG stacks.  Will Catoctin provide access to residents to the unfiltered data in real time (direct - via internet) to allow them to monitor the air quality themselves?

  • 1. Has a Phase 1 environmental impact study been done on either site? From my experience, these studies are usually the make or break factor for the state EPA to even let the companies begin the permitting process.
     -> As far as I know the only studies that were done are included with the Sempra Application - in the 74MB PDF available from the State site

  • 2. This area of Frederick County is not a highly industrial area as far as "big polluters" are concerned. We may already be at the limit as far as Federal EPA guidelines are allowed.
     -> How can we find out??

Disclaimer:  This page is being developed and presented by a citizen of Adamstown, and the opinions represented here do not necessarily reflect the views of anyone beyond that individual.  Information is expected to be posted here from a variety of sources and a variety of links with differing opinions.  This site is intended to facilitate the free flow of information outside of those normal channels being provided by parties directly involved in any of the actions that are discussed.