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David R. Brinkley, Maryland State Delegate.

October 24, 2001 - The Daily Record Online (MD)

Source: http://www.mddailyrecord.com/archives/2_97_wednesday/businessnews/59592-1.html

Community opposition to proposed Frederick County power plant surges

By AMY L. BERNSTEIN
Daily Record Business Writer

Duke Energy North America’s proposed power plant in rural Frederick County could generate more than $500 million annually in county property tax revenues and pour $250 million into the region’s economy — but a growing chorus of residents, county agencies, lawmakers and even a local church say they don’t want it.

Duke power plant
Duke Energy North America has proposed a 640-megawatt power plant for this swath of land in the Point of Rocks section of Frederick County. Despite the plant’s promised economic impact, opposition appears to be growing as some worry about the environmental impact.

Next week the Frederick County Board of Commissioners will unanimously adopt a resolution opposing the proposed construction of Duke’s 640-megawatt power plant in Point of Rocks, a rural residential community in Southern Frederick County.

“This location is just totally inappropriate for a power plant,” said Commissioner Jan Gardner.

The proposed plant would be built on land zoned for agricultural use, rendering it “incompatible” with county development plans, Gardner said.

The plant is sited “close enough to town limits to have a negative impact on the residential community,” she said.

“We are acutely aware that opposition centers on the underlying assumption that the development of this facility somehow constitutes a major shift of local land use away from agriculture and compatible uses,” said Jeremy Dreier, a Duke Energy spokesman. “We hope in the weeks and months ahead to make a solid case that just the opposite is true.”

Dreier said Duke has optioned 566 acres for the plant, of which only 30 acres would be occupied by the facility itself.

“This gives us an opportunity in partnership with the community to construct constructive uses and approaches for the balance of this land,” he said.

But Duke apparently has a way to go to earn the trust of community leaders and others. In June, the company filed an application with the Public Service Commission (enter case number 8891), kicking off a yearlong certification review process by state regulators and several state agencies. Since then, opposition has mushroomed.

“It has not been proven to me that ours is the proper area for [the plant],” said Rep. David R. Brinkley, R-Frederick. “We don’t need it and don’t want it.”

“I think the one issue that’s difficult here is that it’s a ‘green field’ site in a previously undeveloped area,” said Peter M. Dunbar, director of Maryland’s Power Plant Research Program, which coordinates the statewide permitting process for companies such as Duke. “That raises a lot of issues that are really tough to deal with.”

Water consumption also is contentious, Dunbar said. Indeed, two state-chartered water protection agencies — the Fairfax County Water Authority of Virginia and the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission — have expressed concerns over Duke’s potential need to withdraw water directly from the Potomac River, which supplies reservoirs owned and operated jointly by the agencies at a combined cost of $20 million.

Even St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish, built in 1842 in Point of Rocks, weighed in with the PSC late last month.

“We believe that the proposed location of this power plant will adversely affect the view shed of St. Paul’s and its historic rural setting and that toxic emissions from the plant could harm the church building itself,” church leaders stated in their filing.

Whether the Point of Rocks community and other protesters can affect the course of Duke’s proposed power plant application will become clear early next year when the PSC holds public hearings.

Until then, Duke will continue to make its case.

“We are asking people at this stage to please listen, learn more, and look at this project as it is, and not as you imagine it to be,” Dreier said.

Meanwhile, community residents are watching nervously to see whether another merchant energy company, Dynegy Inc., moves forward with a proposal to build a power plant on a 100-acre plot just a few miles up the road from the Duke site.

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Authority: Friends of David R. Brinkley - Sallie M. Brinkley, Treasurer