EPA air
emissions regulations and as part of a $250 million project, both the Genoa and
Alma plants are being retrofitted with a scrubber to reduce sulfur dioxide
emissions into the air, which is the leading cause of acid rain.The Dairyland Power Genoa Offsite Project (i.e. Coal Waste Dump)
Currently, Dairyland Power transports
the coal waste from their Genoa power plant to Alma, WI for disposal. In
addition, some of the fly ash is sold for use in concrete. With the new
EPA air
emissions regulations and as part of a $250 million project, both the Genoa and
Alma plants are being retrofitted with a scrubber to reduce sulfur dioxide
emissions into the air, which is the leading cause of acid rain.
The scrubber works by mixing lime and waste water together to form a slurry mix. This mix is then injected into the smoke stack to form a fine mist which then removes the sulfur dioxide from the exhaust. In addition, Dairyland is installing additional equipment to reduce mercury and nitrogen dioxide emissions as well. Sounds great. Cleaner air, right?
Well, the problem is that this process creates a lot more solid waste. The fly ash that was being recycled now gets mixed in with the lime and is no longer usable. And so, what should be done with all this waste? The easiest and cheapest solution for Dairyland Power is to dump it into the ground nearby, somewhere within a 25 mile radius of the plant. Sort of ironic, that in reducing our air emissions we will now increase ground emissions! I doubt the environmentalists had this in mind when the lobbied for clean air laws to reduce acid rain.
Is this good for the environment? Absolutely not. Study after study shows that these type of waste dumps are contaminating groundwater. Worse, many of the farms in this area are organic. What a slap in the face it is for those of us who have worked hard to stop the use of chemicals on our lands.
How many people will be directly affected? A lot... depending on how one defines "affected". Currently, the affected people are being described as those who received soil test agreements and were identified as offerees. However, this is not accurate because this only accounts for roughly 200 acres of land at each site, as defined by the site boundary lines on each site map. Since we have been told by Dairyland Power publicly that they wish to acquire roughly 600 acres of land to ensure an adequate buffer zone, this means only 25% to 33% of the land to be acquired has been named to date.
How does this affect the people who will continue to live here? Once it is decided which site is chosen for the landfill and buffer zone, the total number of people directly affected can be determined. That's easy.
Determining the number of people indirectly affected is much more difficult. If we have a flood like the one in August 2007, a landfill located at Northridge could wash down the bluff into the Bad Axe river, thus affecting trout fishermen or the farms in Newton Valley that border the river and irrigate from it. If the landfill is sited near the Vernon County landfill, the same situation could happen with the Seas Branch dam.
No matter what, there will be a significant increase in trucks travelling on Highway 56 as the result of hauling waste to the dump site and possibly lime to the power plant, depending on where the lime comes from. Not only will this be noisy but it will cause traffic congestion as these trucks attempt to climb steep hills in low gears. How patient will people be following truck after truck up 2 bluffs on a 2 lane road at 20 m.p.h.? And then there is the issue of safety. If Site 1 (Northridge) is chosen, these semi trucks will need to make a sharp left turn onto Northridge Rd. on a blind curve.
To support this kind of traffic, Hwy 56 will need further widening and straightening than is going on right now. Each climb will need at least one additional passing lane. Where will this go considering the bluff already drops off immediately in spots? Either the bluffs would need to be cut away significantly or a significant amount of fill would have to be dumped over the side to create these additional lanes.
What are the alternatives? We have heard from quite a few people in recent days regarding alternatives. Here are a few:
Choose Brownfield land instead of Greenfield land.
Load the waste back into the empty rail cars that deliver coal and transport the waste back to the mine site. This is a reality for some mines in Wyoming and for some power plants using those mines.
Load the waste back into the trucks that deliver lime to the power plant and store this waste at or near the lime pit.
Recycle the waste into concrete blocks, bricks, or some other inert aggregate like road base or gravel.
How can we stop this? The only way to stop this from happening in our backyard or yours through community pressure on Dairyland Power, regulatory agencies like the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), and our federal, state, and local representatives.
Will eminent domain happen? Possibly. Public utilities like Dairyland Power typically use eminent domain to site power lines and power plants because, in those situations, there are no other options with respect to placement. In this case, the argument for eminent domain is weak because it has been demonstrated that there are indeed other, more suitable sites, like the Vernon County Landfill, if a waste dump is needed.