Dothan Alabama is across the river from Blakely Ga., where a 1,200 megawatt plant is in the process of being permitted. A coalition of groups including the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club have filed legal challenges, and the case is going to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Tuesday night, July 28, the Georgia EPD held a hearing on changes in the air permit after the company that is building it, LS Power out of New Jersey, was forced to put on the Maximum Achievable Control Technology, called MACT. The biomass plant that is proposed for LaGrange is not required to put on this equipment because it is not a fossil fuel power plant, but will burn wood instead.

I questioned how much particulate matter will be released from the coal-fired plant, even after the best available technology is installed. EPD representative James “Jac” Capp responded, “60 pounds per hour.” The 50 MW Biomass plant planned for LaGrange will release 8.33 pounds per hour, but it is only 1/24th the size of this Longleaf coal-fired plant. Strange they’d name a coal plant after a pine tree, but burn pine trees in a plant called Greenway Renewable Power, LLC.

If the LaGrange Biomass plant were the same size as the Blakely Coal plant, it would release 199.92 pounds per hour. That’s over 3 times the amount Longleaf will emit. The reason very fine particulate matter (PM2.5) matters is because it lodges in the lungs and causes asthma, emphezema, lung cancer, COPD, and other diseases, and contributes to heart as well as lung diseases. It is particularly damaging to children and teenagers, whose lungs are not fully developed, and to those who already have diabetes, lung or heart problems.

When the disposal of the coal ash was discussed, I asked where they planned to put it. “In a landfill” was the answer.

“Where” I asked.

Quickly the moderator, James “Jac” Capp, Branch Chief, Air Protection Branch, Georgia Environmental Protection Division, EPD, shot back, ” This is an air permit hearing.” and stopped the company official from responding.

Is it destined for Turkey Run Landfill, just off exit 28 of I-85, the Hogansville exit? How can we find out? Is there another regional landfill being built any nearer to Blakely than this?

If the Dump is opened, the monitoring will consist of two trucks being stopped each day, the cover pulled back, and an employee will take a visual glance at the contents. It’s very near Blue Creek, which runs into Yellow Jack Creek, then into West Point Lake. It is already permitted, and is expected to start taking trash before the end of this year.

There will be 158 pounds of mercury released into the air each year from the burning of coal at the Longleaf plant. The ash will contain the rest that was removed by the MACT devices. The rush to get this plant built is to get it grandfathered in before the requirements to control Carbon Dioxide are finalized by EPA, as mandated by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision that stated that CO2 must be considered a pollutant.

The LaGrange Biomass plant will not be under EPA rules, unless the Supreme Court intervenes. The new clean air law bill by the House of Representatives, called ACES, takes the control of Biomass Plants from EPA and places it in the hands of the Department of Agriculture.