Power plant concerns addressed by DEEP in Kent

KENT—Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) officials addressed a crowd of about 75 residents from Kent and surrounding towns regarding Cricket Valley Energy Center (CVEC) in a meeting at Kent Town Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 26.

 The meeting was convened by the recently formed citizen’s action group Western Connecticut Clean Air Action (WCCAA), comprised of individuals who are concerned about the power plant’s potential impact on regional air quality.

 CVEC is an 1,100-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant currently under construction in Dover Plains. It is slated to be operational in 2020.

“CVEC is located only 6 miles from Kent,” said WCCAA Chairman Michael Benjamin. “Air quality in our region is already poor due to prevailing western winds that bring pollution from other states.”

“We do not have a high degree of confidence that the review New York performed during the permitting process for CVEC adequately took into account the impact the plant would have on our state,” Benjamin continued.

“We are also not confident that existing air quality monitoring is enough. Our primary goal is to establish a baseline of air quality now to better understand how CVEC will impact us when it becomes operational,” Benjamin said.

The three DEEP officials, including Commissioner Rob Klee, said they expect that CVEC will have minimal impact on air quality, citing stringent federal and state environmental regulations, and data demonstrating an overall trend of declining ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants in Connecticut over the past 20 years.

“CVEC will replace other “dirtier” power plants,” said Commissioner Klee, adding that many coal, oil and gas power plants have already been retired. He noted that, however, many nuclear power plants are about to be shut down; those plants generate a large percentage of energy used in New York state and do not create emissions. Cricket Valley is being built in part to fill the gap that will be created when the nuclear plants close (Indian Point in New York, which generates 3,000 MW of power, is scheduled to close in 2020). Progress is being made in green alternatives such as wind, solar and water, the DEEP experts said, but their power is not consistently available; federal law requires that plants such as Cricket Valley be built so there is always baseline power available, even when “the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow,” as Jaimeson Sinclair, assistant director of air engineering for DEEP, said.

 “CVEC will be able to adjust the output of the plant up or down depending on how much power renewable sources of energy are producing at any given time,” he said. “Grid battery technology to store solar-generated power has not yet matured and plants like this one will help bridge the gap in production.”   

He assured the audience that, “We work closely with neighboring states, and are unaware of any instances where New York did not properly follow all regulatory and permitting requirements for this plant.”

Mobile monitoring units

Audience members asked questions for about 45 minutes after the hour-long presentation by the DEEP officials. 

One Kent resident expressed concern that the state-of-the-art DEEP air quality monitoring station in Cornwall on Mohawk Mountain, considered one of the two best monitoring sites in the state, is inadequate and too far from Kent. She asked if the state could purchase a mobile monitoring unit to travel around Kent and ascertain pollution levels. 

The answer briefly was no, that the state can’t afford to buy and operate such a system. Private citizens could raise funds to purchase one of their own, however. 

Questions were asked about what recourse is available to citizens if they feel that CVEC has exceeded its legal pollution limits. The DEEP experts stressed that CVEC’s predicted emissions are substantially lower than those allowed by law; they also noted that the three stacks at the 1,100 MW CVEC plant will produce emissions equal to or lower than the two-stack 500 MW plant that will be built in Oxford, Conn. 

If the plant does exceed legal limits, however, citizens can sue; and if the numbers merit action, the Connecticut attorney general can sue.

They assured the audience that air quality in the Northwest Corner is very clean, especially in comparison to other areas of the state that have more car traffic. Automobile exhaust makes up about 40 percent of air pollutants. Also very polluting is wood smoke; in winter, air quality declines as fireplaces and woodstoves are used.

Helpful websites

The DEEP experts shared websites with the audience that will allow them to monitor air emissions. Those sites include:

• The New York state air quality website, www.nyaqinow.net. Perhaps most useful at the site: contact information on the bottom right side of the home page. You can also sign up here to be on an email list for updates.

For data collected at the Millbrook air quality monitoring station, go to www.nyaqinow.net/StationInfo.aspx?ST_ID=25.

• The federal Environmental Protection Agency offers hourly forecasts of air quality at https://gispub.epa.gov/airnow/?xmin=-8346945.043915209&ymin=5031330.6813...

Connecticut’s DEEP has excellent air quality monitoring information online that is slightly easier to navigate than the information provided by New York state.

• Citizens can file complaints about air quality and they can also speak to the Engineer of the Day and ask questions about air permits. Go to www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2684&q=322080&deepNav_GID=1619. 

•Look for air quality updates by town at www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2684&Q=321798&deepNav_GID=1744&depNav=|.

• To see how air quality today compares to air quality in recent years, go to www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2684&Q=321806&deepNav_GID=1744.

• Sinclair of the DEEP strongly recommended that anyone concerned about air quality read the online guide to air quality basics at www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2684&Q=321788&deepNav_GID=1744.

“It’s a plain English guide to the Clean Air Act and it explains what power you have as a private citizen in the face of all these complex rules.”