National energy issues strike locally

DOVER — Energy resources, vital to our industries, businesses and lifestyles, are frequently at the center of public debate and the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear power plant and Cricket Valley Energy natural gas power plant are no exceptions.Indian Point Energy Center, in Buchanan, N.Y., 38 miles north of New York City, has been in operation since the 1970s. Two of the plant’s licenses will come up for renewal in 2013 and 2015. Indian Point generates roughly 2,000 megawatts of electricity and is the source of around 30 percent of New York City’s power.Cricket Valley Energy is a proposed natural gas plant that will produce 1,000 megawatts of energy from a site located off Route 22 in Dover. If the proposal is accepted, the plant can begin operation as soon as 2015.There are dozens of factors to be taken into account when making decisions regarding the future of these energy plants.In the wake of the tragedy at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Japan earlier this year, the issue most present in many minds is safety.Indian Point is located a mile from a small earthquake fault. The plant was designed to withstand an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale. The Buchanan area was affected by the 5.8 quake that struck the eastern seaboard in late August, the most powerful quake to strike the region in a century, but the plant did not suffer major damage. If an earthquake as strong as the one that triggered the Fukushima disaster were to occur along that fault, the plant would be destroyed. In that scenario, there would be a severe negative impact on the greater Hudson Valley area and fallout could potentially reach the Harlem Valley.Especially since the Sept. 11 attacks, fears have risen over the threat of terrorist attacks at the plant. The facility is currently protected by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The United States Military Academy at West Point is just a few miles away.At Cricket Valley, there are stringent plans being developed to meet all safety requirements. According to the Cricket Valley web site, “the Comprehensive Site and Safety Plan will detail safety procedures, training, and testing that must be completed before workers can enter the Cricket Valley Energy property.... The plant will be equipped with state-of-the-art control systems designed to automatically shut down the facility and the fuel supply at the first sign of an irregularity. Additionally, the plant will have top-of-the-line fire detection, alarm and suppression mechanisms developed in consultation with Dover town fire and emergency officials.”All of the Cricket Valley plans, including emergency plans, will be reviewed in detail before a decision is made on the project.Environmental impacts — both positive and negative — will also factor in to the final decision on these projects.Using nuclear power will help the United States meet its goals regarding cleaner air and a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions, but there is also the risk of nuclear leaks, which can be caused by a large number of reasons, including human error. If nuclear waste enters the environment, it can take thousands of years for the material to break down naturally to a level that is safe for humans.Cricket Valley says that its “low-impact design will preserve and protect the environmental quality of the property, and will respect the rural character of Dover and the surrounding communities.”Cricket Valley also plans on using the latest technology to protect the local water supply from being over-taxed by the plant’s cooling system.For the Cricket Valley project, the economic impact will also affect the decision on the project.It is predicted that the new plant will create roughly 300 jobs during the proposed three-year construction period and roughly 25 to 30 permanent jobs once the plant is operational.Ryan Courtien, the Dover supervisor, acknowledges the Cricket Valley project will have many positive and negative impacts on the area, but stressed that it is important to look at all the facts of the project before a decision is made.“It’s not ‘our’ facts and ‘their’ facts. There’s just facts,” he said, explaining that the proposal process is designed to reveal all of those facts so that the local government and other organizations like the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) can make whichever decision is in the area’s best interests.In the proposal process, applicants representing the Cricket Valley project recently finished their DEIS, or Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which is part of the mandated State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process. Public comment on that segment of the process ended on Friday, Aug. 5.During the public comment period, hundreds of comments were submitted. Courtien said he submitted 85 comments, but noted that the number of comments has no correlation with the project’s final outcome. Comments are simply a way to gain clarification on parts of the proposal, he said.From here, the applicants will respond to the public comments to the satisfaction of the DEC, the lead agency.Then a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) will be submitted. Once completed, the applicants can apply for a special-use permit from the Dover Town Board.There will be further opportunities for public comment during the FEIS and special use permit application processes.Regardless of the outcome of the Indian Point and Cricket Valley power plants, the United States relies heavily on the availability of constant electricity, and that electricity needs to be generated somewhere, somehow.These two projects will most likely remain prominent in the media until their fates are decided. Vast amounts of information about both projects, including their benefits and potential downsides, can be found online.More information about the Cricket Valley project can be found at www.cricketvalley.com.