The status of most of the remaining permitting processes for the John W. Turk, Jr., Power Plant under construction by AEP/Southwestern Electric Power Co. near Fulton remains unaffected by the on-going legal fight over the 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant.
In a year-end filing before the Arkansas Public Service Commission, SWEPCO reports that most of its permitting processes will be either completed or within targeted submission timetables within 2009. The company takes particular note in its filing of the on-going dispute with environmental interests and hunting club owners over the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s approval of Turk’s final air quality permit.
That dispute is currently before an administrative law judge for the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, and is to be taken up in a March hearing before Judge Michael O’Malley.
However, the report makes no mention of the current appeal by opponents of a federal lawsuit seeking to restrain the company from undertaking construction activities in contravention to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandates on “site preparation” activities.
U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes denied a request for a temporary restraining order in that instance, and Barnes’ decision has been appealed to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where it remains undecided.
The report also makes no mention of the appeal by environmental interests of the APSC’s granting SWEPCO permission to build the plant in November, 2007. That appeal before the Arkansas Court of Appeals remains in that court’s jurisdiction, based upon a Dec. 11, 2008, letter to attorneys that the Arkansas Supreme Court had declined to have jurisdiction of the appeal transferred to it.
Remaining major permitting authority before the ADEQ includes wastewater treatment facility approval, set for submission this month; wastewater and storm water permitting, expected to be submitted two years before the start of operations (now planned for 2012); and, landfill permitting, awaiting additional information requested by ADEQ.
U.S. Corps of Engineers water use permitting, expected to be completed in 2009, also remains pending, according to the report.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Monday that ADEQ Director Teresa Marks said the agency has not issued any permits for coal ash and waste storage similar to that used in Tennessee, where a Tennessee Valley Authority plant retention pond collapsed, sending ash and water over some 300 acres of land and destroying three homes as it spilled into the Emory River.
Marks told the AP that no such structures are being requested for siting at the Turk plant.
“We really don’t have the sludge ponds to that extent here in Arkansas,” Marks is quoted saying.
A SWEPCO spokesperson told the AP the Turk plant will use a dry ash disposal system, where ash removed from the plant boiler will be dried on a concrete pad before being stored in an on-site landfill.