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Sunday, June 17, 2012

Your EPA At Work

Morro Bay Power Plant operating at near zero capacity. Did we mention the $16B budget shortfall here in California?


4 comments:

  1. The Dynegy power plant, plays a large role in Morro Bay, and in providing electricity to the Central Coast and the Central Valley of California (primarily Fresno and Bakersfield). Its future, as of 2007, is uncertain. The plant was built in the 1950s, and Dynegy wishes to modernize it with a new combined cycle plant. The plant is staffed with 44 employees. The outfall lease with the city was recently approved by the majority of the city council. Activists are opposed to the new plant. The United States Environmental Protection Agency‎ (EPA) and the courts are wrestling with how to interpret the Clean Water Act (CWA) and its applicability to power plants. The EPA has ruled that the local Regional Water Quality Control Boards are responsible for ensuring that the current and the future plant are permitted and regulated. If the proposed plant is eventually built, the old power plant and its 450 ft. tall stacks will be removed. The modernized plant would be located slightly northwest of the existing plant, and its stacks would be much shorter (145 ft).

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  2. I read that, too. Meanwhile nothing has been done and it sits their idle. The EPA and the courts play a role.

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  3. Well its idle because its no longer cost effective to run. The courts play a role because of the lawsuits by those who don't want the powerplant expanded. The courts and the EPA didn't bring forth the suits, the local NIMBY homeowners did.

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  4. Yeah, I read that. It looked like a combination of the two. The lawsuits relied on the EPA rules regarding protection of animal life to go after the way the plant brought in cooling water.

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