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Friday, August 26, 2005

Environment - Power plant, shooting range

Power plant. A proposed New Carlisle coal gasificiation plant is on the defensive, according to this story in the LaPorte County Herald-Argus. Some quotes:

“It creates a lot of anxiety,” Joe Tondu, president and owner of Tondu Corp., told the approximately 400 people in attendance about the proposed plant. “When people show up and say they’re going to build something, you think the worst can happen.”

And many do. Tondu said the St. Joseph County Council’s approval of a special use permit would allow the company to begin environmental and site studies. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management will ultimately be responsible for approving the final permits.

But even that was open for debate. That permitting process would take about nine months, Tondu officials said.

Steve Ross, St. Joseph County Commission vice president, said IDEM would just be a rubber stamp in the process and unable to police the plant’s long-term environmental impact.

Jim Ford, a managing partner in the company, said in most emissions categories the $1 billion power plant would produce substantially less pollutants than a coal burning plant. The former Allegheny Energy site was chosen because of nearby rail and electric lines. He said the plant would be almost as clean as a natural gas facility.

The technology is so clean, Tondu claimed, a gasification plant in Yokohama, Japan, is across the street from a hospital. “The technology is so clean, you can put them anywhere,” he said.

The proposed plant would use a blend of coal and petroleum coke to create a synthetic gas, according to Tondu officials. While aspects of the gasification technology are in use in other plants, the proposed site would be one of a kind. * * *

Tondu’s presentation and question-and-answer period lasted about two hours, but Tondu officials remained afterwards to address concerns one-on-one.

Allert Brown-Gort, with Michiana Quality of Life, a group lobbying the company for specific environmental impact information, said that even though the meeting was held in New Carlisle, near where the plant would be located, it should have been held at a more central location since emissions from the plant could affect both St. Joseph and Elkhart counties.

“The problem isn’t the technology,” Brown-Gort said. “It seems to be the technology and the way you do business.”

An earlier AP story appeared in yesterday's Indianapolis Star. Some quotes:
NEW CARLISLE, Ind. -- Town officials have declared their opposition to a proposed $1 billion power plant.

But the project's fate could be left up to St. Joseph County officials, not New Carlisle leaders, because the coal gasification plant is planned for just outside the town's boundaries 15 miles west of South Bend.

Town Council President Steve Hora said in a resolution that the community is against the proposal because of "insufficient information" about the Tondu Corp. project.

He said the plant could pollute the area with ash, mercury or other metals. Coal gasification produces a synthetic gas by burning coal slurry and oxygen under high pressure.

Nearly 100 people packed the New Carlisle Town Hall meeting chambers Tuesday and applauded after council members unanimously passed the resolution.

Tondu Corp., a privately held industrial development company based in Houston, is considering purchasing a site near the northern Indiana town where Allegheny Energy Supply once planned to build a $400 million gas-fired power plant.

Shooting Range. This story by Sue Lowe in the South Bend Tribune is headlined "Old range subject of suit: Mishawaka and property owner at loggerheads over cleanup." Some quotes:
MISHAWAKA -- In the 1970s, Jennie Bueche says, somebody from the Mishawaka police department asked whether they could use land behind her Dragoon Trail home for a shooting range.

"He told me they were run out of where they were," she said. "I really didn't want to do it, but I did."

More than two decades later, she's in a legal dispute with the city over that decision. Her attorney has filed a lawsuit asking that the city pay to clean up the property. * * *

She says she never charged the city anything for use of the land.

Brent Inabnit, her attorney, said that in the early 1990s, the city cleaned up the soil with the bullets in it.

In 1995, former mayor Robert C. Beutter signed an agreement that says she would not be liable for anything related to the police department's use of the land.

Inabnit said that in early 2003, after the police department stopped using the range, he sent a letter asking the city to clean up the range again.

At first the response was positive, and Inabnit said Envirocorps was hired to evaluate the property.

They took 40 soil samples, and 36 had lead in them -- 13 with enough lead to exceed state standards, according to Inabnit. He said at least some of the soil would be considered hazardous waste.

Inabnit said he and city representatives had some discussions about the city cleaning up the property. But the city wanted to buy it instead. So in October 2004, Inabnit filed suit asking that the city be ordered to clean up the property.

Mayor Jeff Rea said the city still wants to buy 11 acres of Bueche's property. It's outside the city limits, but a large pit on the land where gravel and dirt were mined in the past would make a good place to put excess dirt left over when city crews install water or sewer lines or do other underground work.

The city doesn't want to buy Bueche's house or yard, just the property behind them. "We don't want to sell," Inabnit said. "We want it fixed."

A recent letter from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to Bueche said the department "has chosen not to pursue an investigation at this time." Steve McIntire, project manager of the State Cleanup Section, continued, "Numerous studies have shown that lead in the form of spent ammunitions has a low mobility and adverse effects are rare. "However, future reuse of this firing range land is a concern to IDEM," he continued.

McIntire wrote that cleanup strategy will depend on the proposed future use of the property. And he encouraged Bueche and the city "to work together in addressing the lead issues at the site." * * *

While the two sides haggle over Bueche's property, another city police firing range has also been the subject of some controversy. A committee of Mishawaka Common Council members is investigating disposal of materials that contained lead from the city's indoor firing range, which is being refurbished.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 26, 2005 03:35 PM
Posted to Environment