No Altamont Power Plant

There are only three power plants in California that are 1,000 MW or larger (the proposed Altamont plant is 1,100 MW).  They can be found in this list on CA energy commission’s web site.   They are:

• Moss Landing @ 1,060 MW
• La Paloma @ 1,124 MW
• Mountainview @ 1,026 MW

Let’s take a look at the surroundings of each of these plants. It appears to me that the siting of the East Altamont Energy Center is unprecedented in its close proximity to schools and desirable residential housing.

Each of these images is zoomed to approx. the 1000 ft level.

The Moss Landing Plant

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There is no residential or schools visible at the 1,000 ft level here around the Moss Landing plant. Let’s look at La Paloma:

La Paloma Plant

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La Paloma is truly in the boonies (where these projects belong). Taking a look at the Mountainview Plant in San Bernardino:

Mountainview Plant

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This plant does in fact have some residential in close proximity to it, in addition to the primarily industrial setting. But if you take a look at the street view, it is not a neighborhood that is comparable to Mountain House in desirability. And I don’t think this is how we want our neighborhood to end up.

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Actually this plant (Mountainview in San Bernardino) gives us a chance to get a clear visual of a plant this size using google’s street view again:

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Now let’s take a look at the siting of the plant adjacent to Mountain House.

East Altamont

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Here I’ve highlighted in green the proximity of two our Elementary School sites that are visible on the 1,000 ft scale. The plant site is outlined in red.

Conclusion: Nowhere else in all of California is a plant of this scale so close to elementary schools and desirable residential neighborhoods.  We should see to it that we are not the first.

Next I’d like to get to specifics of what can be done to oppose the building of this plant. The sooner we can start pushing back on this the better.

Here is a link to the full environmental impact report submitted in 2002.

Right off the bat, we should be disabused of the notion that this plant will be insignificant to us.  Direct quotes from the report:

• The EAEC as proposed has the potential to create significant impacts to local and regional air quality.
• Staff found that the project’s emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) have the potential to cause significant impacts relative to the state and federal 1-hour ozone air quality standards.
• Further, the project’s emissions have the potential to cause significant impacts relative to the state 24-hour PM10 (particulate matter less than 10 microns in diameter) air quality standard.
• The project would also contribute to existing violations of the recently promulgated federal 8-hour ozone and 24-hour PM2.5 standards.

The tone of the report is often skeptical and dismayingly deferential to parties with interests which are opposed with those of us who would actually have to live with the consequences of the plant.  For example, regarding the land usage:

“Although staff does not completely agree with the conclusions of the County (Alameda), such conclusions are plausible and staff therefore defers to the County’s interpretation of their own guidelines”

I’m sure Alameda County loved the siting of this plant. They get all of the benefits and get to dump all of the consequences on us. The fact that the law requires approval from Alameda County only and not from the county which is mainly impacted is manifestly unjust. If necessary, I intend to contest this aspect of the siting and approval process.

Note that the approval process was conducted in 2002 at a time when California had just been through a severe energy crisis. The state of CA came under harsh criticism for not having sufficient generating capacity to meet energy demand needs, and a frantic push to approve new power plants ensued. This application was approved at the height of this manic period, which no doubt influenced the decision making process. It is my opinion that if this decision is revisited, cooler heads will prevail and the plant will not be permitted to be built.

Calpine has recently been granted a 3 year extension to build one of the largest power plants in CA directly adjacent to Mountain House.  The site’s proximity to MH is shown below.  We all know which way the winds blow in our community:  from the site directly into the heart of Mountain House.

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The plant will be a 1,100 MW natural gas fired, fossil fuel burning power plant. It will be one of the largest plants in the entire state of California. To get an idea of what this entails, this is a picture of the 600 MW Calpine Riverside Energy Center in Benoit, Wi:

Note that the plant pictured above is roughly half the size of the plant we are facing being built.  My concerns relate to polluting and potentially hazardous emissions, foul odors, noise pollution, visual blight, and the potential for accidents especially considering the known use of large quantities of anhydrous ammonia at the plant, which has been at the center of several serious accidents.

Environmental impact studies conducted in 2002 indicate that this plant will have chemical emissions that are significant enough to trigger the need for special exceptions under the law. To take one example, the plant will emit 293.9 lb/year of benzene into the air, which exceeds both the “trigger limit” of 6.9 lb/year (which requires an impact study) as well as the “special exception needed” limit of 199 lb/year. Benzene is a known carcinogen, and is specifically known to cause leukemia with chronic exposure. Wikipedia gives a lot of information on the known and documented risks of benzene exposure. This is just one example. There are literally dozens of known harmful chemicals that we will be directly downwind from if this plant is built and operated.

Currently, we believe based on solid information that Calpine must acquire a power purchase agreement from PG&E before they will be able to obtain the funding to build the power plant. PG&E is choosing a short list of competitors for such a power purchase agreement in October, 2008. That is very soon. We would like for PG&E not to choose Calpine for the power purchase agreement. No power purchase agreement, no plant.

We believe the environmental assessments done in 2002 are no longer valid due to the growth of MH all the way into Questa, which puts residents right now directly adjacent to the proposed site. As a first step towards prevention of the plant, we would like to enlist concerned residents’ help in making it known to PG&E that:

• The citizens of Mountain House are ready to take all legal steps to prevent and/or delay the construction of the East Altamont Energy Center.
• We have a valid concern that the environmental impact studies done thus far are invalid under the law due to significant changes in the surrounding area, and must be completely revisited.
• Furthermore, we believe the proposed site will be deemed not viable due to what is now an extremely close proximity to our growing residential community and schools, and the prevailing wind patterns.
• Therefore, it is not in their interests to proceed into any power purchase agreement with proposed East Altamont Energy Center due to these serious impediments to the viability of such a contract.

If you would like to help, please bookmark this site and visit often for ways to get involved in the fight to stop this power plant. I am working on setting up an online letter writing campaign as a first step to making our opposition to this project known. I believe that our health, our children’s health, our property values, and our very community are at stake.

Sincerely,
Robert W. Anderson and Family
Altamont Resident