Trucking exec wants coal plant answers

Trucking exec wants coal plant answers

While many local business organizations have voted to support a $1.3 billion coal-fired power plant in northeast Waterloo, one local businessman says he’s withholding his support for the project until traffic and environmental questions are addressed to his satisfaction.

Bob Molinaro, president of Warren Transport Inc. and a member of the Waterloo Industrial Development Association board of directors, said he voted against a recent WIDA board resolution endorsing the project.

“I am concerned. I’m not really opposed to this, but I think we need some answers before we fully endorse these things,” Molinaro said.

Resolutions adopted by WIDA, the Greater Cedar Valley chambers of commerce in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, the downtown Waterloo Development Corp. and the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance economic development group endorsed the project. The groups conditioned their support on an evaluation of environmental and transportation issues, with the understanding those will be addressed as LS Power applies for state permits for the project. The city of Waterloo also will have to approve annexation and rezoning requests for the project.

The Alliance board also encouraged the company to explore alternative biobased energy sources in addition to coal for the plant.

Molinaro wants those issues addressed before he’ll support the project.

“One of them has to do with transportation, which I know a little about,” said Molinaro. His company, a major hauler of John Deere equipment, has a terminal in the city’s northeast industrial area near the rail line closest to the proposed power plant site. He questioned how the company will route 150-car coal trains to the plant, and who will pay for the tracks at the plant site on which they will be stored.

LS Power project manager Mark Milburn has said that and other transportation issues will be addressed in a transportation study to be presented to the Iowa Utilities Board. Officials with the Iowa Northern Railroad, which would handle rail traffic to the plant site, have said they do not anticipate the added traffic will pose a significant problem.

Molinaro also questioned the plant’s water usage and what demand that might place on city services. LS Power has said it plans to use treated wastewater from the city’s wastewater treatment plant on Easton Avenue for cooling, and that the lines built to relay that water between the two plants are part of the project cost and would be paid by LS Power directly or in its utility bills.

As far as potable water is concerned, Waterloo Water Works General Manager Dennis Clark has said discussions have begun with LS Power on the quantity of water needed and if it will fluctuate depending on time of day or season.

“Of course, it’s always positive for the Water Works, because we have excess capacity in our system,” Clark said earlier this month. A large water main installed in the 1990s along Elk Run Road, serving customers such as Tyson Fresh Meats and Eagle Ottawa tannery, will provide access, with LS Power paying for its service line, he indicated.

“The third thing is, obviously, there are other systems” for generating electricity besides coal, “and that is not very new technology,” Molinaro said. He said there are numerous plants around the country using alternative, cleaner generating sources than coal.

LS Power officials have said one alternative technology, coal gasification, has not yet been proven to be cost effective, that there is an abundant supply of coal in the United States and that current stringent regulations require those operations to burn cleaner than ever. Milburn of LS Power also said the company was willing to look at alternative biobased fuel sources, just as Cedar Falls Utilities is experimenting with those options at its coal-fired Streeter Station power plant, in operation for years.

Molinaro also questioned who will own and operate the plant. Milburn indicated those questions may be resolved pending the outcome of a proposed merger between LS Power and Houston-based Dynegy Inc., still subject to federal regulatory and company approvals. If the merger goes through, LS Power would own 40 percent of Dynegy, the largest share of the company. He said the Waterloo power plant proposal would be a 50-50 venture between LS Power and Dynegy. Under the proposed merger, Dynegy would combine its current assets and operations with LS Power’s generation portfolio and will acquire a 50 percent stake in a development joint venture with LS Power.

“I don’t want to be negative on something if it has some attributes, but, environmentally, I want something that’s sound,” Molinaro said. “I haven’t had the answers we should have. I’m still, quite frankly, kind of mixed.” He also wanted some idea on how many of the estimated 1,200 construction jobs will be filled by local employees.

Molinaro has been outspoken in the past in his views on different economic development projects. In the late 1980s he opposed IBP Inc.’s proposed hog slaughtering plant in northeast Waterloo, presently operated by Tyson, and he sued the city to block its rezoning, eventually settling with the city after agreements were made on improvements to North Elk Run Road and other matters. “The best thing that happened to IBP is they sold to Tyson,” said Molinaro, who in the late ’80s objected to IBP’s employment practices and predicted the firm would cause “social upheaval” in Waterloo.

Unlike that issue, Molinaro said with LS Power, he doesn’t want it to appear as though he’s going to “fight this tooth and nail.”

“All I’m saying is, don’t call the people nuts that are opposing this because they have some environmental concerns. We need to take a look at this,” Molinaro said.

“If I had served one purpose, maybe, it’s to raise awareness that we have a responsibility to the environment and to the people who are here,” he said.

LS Power project manager Milburn said he would like to meet with Molinaro to address his concerns.

Source: www.wcfcourier.com

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