Update November 2009: Last year, Power4Georgians submitted an application to Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to build a coal-fired power plant at a time when citizens in every state across the nation are questioning the safety and efficiency of generating electric energy from burning pulverized coal. In August 2009 EPD released draft permits for several of the permits that will be required to operate and construct the coal-fired power plant in Sandersville. The permits include a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit, which will address the air emissions of such pollutants as mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and more. The permit can be found on EPD's website
here.
EPD also released a draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, a water withdrawal permit, and a groundwater withdrawal permit which are not available on EPD's website, but can be obtained by visiting EPD in Atlanta.
A public hearing was held in at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20 in Sandersville. The hearing was attended by 321 people; 51 spoke against the plant, 14 in favor of it.
Working in partnership with SELC, GreenLaw sent detailed comments on the plant's air, water, and solid waste permits to EPD on October 27. These comments can be viewed here:
Air Quality Permit Comments
Solid Waste Permit Comments
Water Discharge Permit Comments
Groundwater Withdrawal Permit Comments
Surface Water Withdrawal Permit Comments
To add your name to those opposing new coal plants in Georgia,
click here.
Final permits are expected to be issued in Spring 2010.
Update from 2008: In January 2008, Power4Georgians, LLC, a consortium group composed of ten members of Georgia’s Electric Management Corporation (EMC), submitted a proposal for a coal-fired power plant to Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), the agency responsible for issuing permits for pollution sources in Georgia.
Power4Georgians seeks to construct an 854-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sandersville, Georgia, 60 miles east of Macon and close to Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer.
On
February 22, 2008, GreenLaw attorneys, acting on behalf of over a dozen citizen groups, submitted a detailed analysis of Power4Georgians’ permit application for a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit, the permit that addresses air quality emissions from the proposed plant.
View Comments on Plant Washington
GreenLaw's 45-page analysis (2-22-08) identified serious flaws with the proposed plant. For example, the applicant did not even consider numerous technologies that would improve air quality and protect the health of both citizens and agricultural crops.
One of the greatest problems outlined in the comment document was the failure to provide adequate air pollution modeling that would show the real impact the plant would have on Georgia’s air quality.
Macon, while technically meeting federal air standards (attainment), is currently facing serious problems with the amount of PM2.5, small particulate matter.
GreenLaw pointed out the need for the state to require much more adequate modeling of this dangerous pollutant which lodges in the lungs and contributes to respiratory diseases. Another flaw of the application is the failure to consider IGCC, or coal gasification, a technology that controls air pollution much more effectively than traditional plants and which other states have required to be considered in determining the best available control technology (BACT).
Furthermore, the plant has no proposed limits on the amount of its global-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
