There's a proposed coal waste power plant to be built just west of our area. These types of plants produce fly ash -- fly ash which will add to our already
particulate-polluted air.
A new website has been created over the concerns raised by this proposed plant:
http://www.wehavenotbeguntofight.org/ The site includes information on public meetings about the plant.
Give it a whirl!
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Thanks for posting this. We can thank some environmental imposters
ReplyDeleteand the Rendell administration for
including waste coal power plants in "alternative energy" funding.
what hypocrisy!
NIMBY!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHave to remember this post when PA experiences rolling brownouts and electricity shortages due to the adoption of more electric cars.
How about a new Nuclear plant instead. Zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Thanks for posting this Maria there's a meeting in Mt. Lebanon on Thursday night if folks want to learn more. I will be there representing the Sierra Club, Lisa Graves-Marcucci from the Environmental Integrity Project, and a representative from the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Healthy Environments and Communities. to for more details on the meeting go here: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=113241&autologin=true
ReplyDeleteHeir to the Throne-
ReplyDeleteYou do know that PA exports significant amounts of electricity so Pennsylvanians are at low risk for "brownouts." The proposed Robinson Power Plant will export all of the electricity it produces, while we local Pittsburghers suffer the effects on our health--quality of life and longevity! This issue goes way beyond "enviornmental" concerns directly to health and welfare issues.
Coal powered plants kill people. It's as simple as that. The days of the "streetlights on a noon" are long gone, but today we get to inhale absurd amounts of particulates; you just cant see them!
ReplyDeleteEasy to talk in the abstract about all this, Heir, but how would you feel if some loved one of yours died due to this pollution?
OMG. We're all gonna die! [Women, children and minorities hardest hit]
ReplyDeleteI fail to see the real issue.. there will not be any billowimg plumes of ash.. the EPA will make this venture jump and (on the way up) say "High high" and then jump thro' hoops so difficult that the human mind cannot comprehend..
The area is a fickin' DUMP! an environmental WASTELAND! I live near here and play Quicksilver GC 2-3x a week.
OK... you don't want this? Paraphrasing HTTT, let's build a nuclear power plant on the site.. cheaper power with NO ash or other airborne pollutants.
Forgot.. you environmentalist whackos want us to go with wind and solar. You forgot a few things.. wind doesn't always blow and requires THOUSANDS of windmills (oops, turbines) and the sun RARELY shines in Western PA.
Let's see.. project cleans up a DUMP.. project creates jobs.. project creates tax revenues..
I may go to this meeting in SUPPORT of this project.
Conservative Mountaineer-
ReplyDeleteCan you SEE electricity??? That does not mean that is doesn't exist! The notion that because there isn't going to be black soot covering our cars in the morning means that this plant is not producing sir-borne pollution that puts our health at risk is frighteningly ignorant. If you do just a teeny tiny bit of research about what this plant WILL send into the air and what the redepositing of fly ash on the site in an unlined pitt will LEACH into the groundwater you wouldn't talk so flippantly about the issue. And your accusations about the DEP/EPA being some kind of barrier for this project (holding up "progress" to you??) shows your lack of information even more poignantly. This Beech HOllow project, in particular, has been given special treatment by the PADEP...don't take my word for it....
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/9245638/detail.html
And just for the record....no one is claiming "We're all gonna die"...after doing a lot of research I just claim "Many of us are going to suffer with poor health, shorter life spans, and increased pollution-originating illnesses...only some of us are going to die from it".
From their comments, I'm forced to conclude that Mein Herr doesn't live anywhere close to the Pittsburgh area and that CM lives closer to Charleston or Huntington that, oh, say, Morgantown.
ReplyDeleteMein Herr doesn't live anywhere close to the Pittsburgh area
ReplyDelete7 miles from the Springdale Coal Power plant.
You do know that PA exports significant amounts of electricity
Someone has to generate power for the Northeastern Liberal enclaves.
You do not want the Ted Kennedy's Cape Cod view marred by windmills.
I believe that is because we have excess Electrical capacity that was used to serve the Steel mills.
Joshua... I live ~6 miles directly West of the site. Nice try.
ReplyDeleteOops, I mean EAST of the site. The site is ~6 miles to the West of me (as the crow flies).
ReplyDeleteSo...Heir to the Throne and Conservative Mountaineer do you both deny the empirical evidence of the connection between the emissions from plants such as the proposed Beech Hollow plant and impacts on public health (asthma, heart disease, lung disease, cancer....just to name a few)?
ReplyDeleteI am not ANTI-energy...but I want responsible energy that does not cost me or my family members years off our life or reduced quality of life....
The gob pile currently on the site is certainly an eye sore and has the environmental consequence of acid mine drainage. The acid mine drainage is managed through a number of strategies...all of which cost the site owner $$$....burning that gob will magnify the acid mine drainage for years until the whole pile is burned AND add significant air pollution (mercury, PAHs, nitrogen oxides, etc.) and replace the gob with fly ash which has serious environmental and health concerns according the the very well respected National Academies of Sciences 2006 report on managing coal combustion wastes. How can you both discount all of this evidence??
By the way, I'm a pro-nuclear power liberal (yeah, there are a few of us), but I'd rather see us use more wind and solar power.
ReplyDeleteHowever, waste coal is quite problematic - the fact that the state of Pennsylvania decreed this as an "alternate power source" a few years back seems wrong. Unlike wind and power, it is very polluting.
Something needs to be done about the Beech Hollow gob pile, but I don't think a waste coal power plant is the way to go. How about putting solar panels on top of the gob pile, since there don't seem to be many trees there?
We need creative solutions to the gob piles, not just ways to create more particulates.