Thompson River Co-Gen LLC plans to generate power by burning coal and wood in Thompson Falls to sell to the power industry - so-called cogeneration of electric power authorized by Congress.
"The people haven't had a voice. They've been shut out," said organizer Morlene Plouzek a retiree who lives about a half-mile from the plant just west of town. She gave her age as "over 70."
Plouzak said she called the meeting because she fears mercury and other toxic emissions from the coal ignition will poison her drinking water. She said she must drink rainwater collected from where it falls on the metal roof of her home. It is stored in an underground cistern. The 800-foot well she drilled when she moved to the property in 1999 came up dry, and rainwater has been her sole source of drinking water ever since.
"I'm not going to drink mercury, and I can't afford to move," she said as she handed out brochures titled "Power Plants and Your Health" and "Sulfur Dioxide and the Environment " published by the National Campaign Against Dirty Power, an environmental advocacy group based in Washington that opposes coal-fired power plants.
Other local residents wondered aloud if they would be able to eat their garden vegetables or the apples and cherries from their fruit trees, or consume the trout, whitefish and bass they catch in the Thompson and Clark Fork rivers and Noxon Reservoir a few miles away, once the plant is in operation.
Several Thompson River Co-Gen officials, consultants and supporters attended the meeting. But Plouzak denied their requests to speak. She said she wanted her answers from the state Department of Environmental Quality.
A meeting is scheduled in Thompson Falls with numerous DEQ officials April 1, the time and place are to be announced. Plouzak said the main purpose of her meeting was to gather questions to ask DEQ officials during that scheduled visit. But it was also the first organized opposition to the plant since it was proposed in 2001.
"I own the meeting, I paid for the advertisements, and I organized it. I'm asking you to sit down and be quiet and listen," she sternly told one Co-Gen supporter who rose to protest that the meeting was a "rally" rather than an open forum or town meeting.
On Thursday, Co-Gen managing partner Barry Baker of Kalispell was not available for comment. But Curt Boydston, the plant director in Thompson Falls, and an employee of a major investor, Savage Industries, said he attended the meeting.
"Last night, we were there to listen and see what the concerns were. At the appropriate time, we'll respond. I think all reasonable questions they post to the DEQ will be answered. Our position is that we're willing to discuss our operations and answer any questions anyone wants to know about a particular aspect of the plant."
Peter Lupsha, who identified himself as a concerned fly-fisherman from Trout Creek, discussed information he had gleaned from the public record of the plant's permitting and construction progress.
The business firm applied for a permit on Aug. 28, 2001, and placed legal notice in the Sanders County Ledger on Sept. 11 of that year - the day of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
Since no member of the local community contacted the state Department of Environmental Quality, no meetings were held in Thompson Falls.
The plant sailed through the permitting process, he said, and was largely ignored and even welcomed locally because it's primary purpose ostensibly was to burn biomass - waste wood from forest slash and lumber mill trimmings, and employ out-of-work local loggers.
"Somewhere along the line that changed," he said.
To make a profit selling large quantities of power to NorthWestern Energy required the plant also to burn coal, according to their business plan. The coal will come from the Bull Mountains near Roundup, transported some 500 miles by rail car. It will supply 80 percent to 90 percent of the energy for electricity production for the next few years. It ultimately could burn as much as 50 percent wood waste.
Few local residents, not even Plouzak, have a problem with employing local loggers or the clean burning of waste wood at the local lumber mill to generate electricity.
But coal-burning power generation is a proven source of sulphur dioxide pollution and toxic mercury emissions. The toxic mercury emissions are unregulated by federal or state government. It is also true that modern coal-burning technology has significantly reduced the harmful emissions that were common 20 years or more ago.
Still, some 6.14 pounds of mercury emissions can be expected to go up the stack at the Thompson Falls Co-Gen power plant each year, according to a published estimate by the state Department of Environmental Quality.
Where will the mercury land? It comes down in rainwater. That's why Plouzak and others are so concerned. They have received no answers from state officials about the amount of mercury that will end up in the Clark Fork or Thompson Rivers, Flathead Lake or the metal roof on Plouzak's straw-bale house.
Meanwhile, the state of Montana's Board of Investments admired the cogeneration plant's business plan enough to loan the limited liability corporation $10.5 million for startup costs, at a below-market interest rate of 2 percent if the plant creates 15 jobs.
"This is not economic development. This is enrichment of the few and pollution for the many," Lupsha told the angry crowd.
"This is domestic terrorism. They are down here building a weapon of mass destruction. We need to get the government on our side," complained Mark Wedel, another vocal critic of the plant from Thompson Falls.
The assembly was cautioned by Lupsha and Caeser Hernandez an environmental advocate from Somers that their protests at this late date probably can't stop the plant in its tracks.
But they could convince state officials to gather information about contaminants now present in local soils and water and fish, so if mercury or other toxins suddenly increase in future years, there will be a standard of comparison for lawsuits or other recourse.
They can also demand a full review of changes the Thompson Co-Gen plant has requested the state to approve that are different from its original permit requests, but will make the plant more profitable to operate.
And they can demand meetings, many more meetings, to inform local citizens and pressure state regulators and scientists to keep a close eye on the plant's operations.
Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jstromnes@missoulian.com
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