Fall 2001 - Energy

A Question of Geography
by Curtis Woodward

Near the end of public comment hearings at Nooksack Valley High School’s auditorium on Oct. 30, Mary Reeves sounded a bit exasperated.

“We have been fighting this,” Reeves said, pausing to sigh, “for too long.”

Reeves, executive director of the Abbotsford, British Columbia Downtown Business Association, was just one of several hundred who gathered last fall to voice their opinions on Sumas Energy 2.

SE2, a 660-megawatt natural gas-fired electricity generation facility proposed for construction in Sumas, Wash., has spurred one of the most heated and drawn-out battles over energy and public health going on anywhere in North America. By all indications, the fight is far from over.

The Washington state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) denied Sumas Energy 2, Inc.’s application to build the plant in February 2001. In June, SE2’s backers, including parent company and project manager National Energy Systems Company, submitted a revised application, one they said addressed EFSEC’s problems with the original proposal.

SE2’s opponents, however, were not satisfied with the changes.

“I put it to you now,” said Randy White, a member of parliament representing Abbotsford and Langley, British Columbia, “the (application) should be rejected because the plant’s location is the same.”

Opposition to the plant was broad-based and extremely vocal throughout the EFSEC process, allying activists, politicians, scientists, doctors, businesspeople and outdoors enthusiasts on both sides of the border. This coalition repeatedly argued that the surrounding area is far too polluted to withstand any more industrial emissions.

The plant’s expected emissions for nearly every pollutant are small percentages of any applicable state or federal air quality maximum, but opponents such as Abbotsford City Councillor John H. Redekop say the sheer volume of SE2’s output poses too great a threat to the area’s airshed.

“Yes, it’s the cleanest plant in the Northwest,” Redekop said. “It also produces the most volume. Those percentages mean little if you have enough output.”

According to an EFSEC draft fact sheet, SE2 would emit 144.5 tons of nitrogen oxides, 88 tons of carbon monoxide, 153 tons of volatile organic compounds, 209 tons of particulate matter smaller than 10 microns, 69 tons of sulfur oxides, including 14.3 tons of sulfuric acid mist, and 139 tons of ammonia every year.

The Fraser River valley airshed, which includes Abbotsford and Chilliwack, British Columbia as well as areas on the American side of the border, already rates as the second most-polluted airshed in Canada. The valley extends northwest from SE2’s proposed site at an almost 45-degree angle. Residents of the area say prevailing southwesterly winds would effectively sweep most of SE2’s pollution into the valley, where it would be trapped by the surrounding ridges.

EFSEC cited Fraser Valley’s existing pollution problems as one reason it originally denied the application. According to Abbotsford officials, athsma is already the leading cause of absenteeism in the area’s schools and businesses, and one of the most common reasons residents seek emergency medical assistance.

“We have a written statement from our physicians that they will leave the area if this plant is put in,” Redekop said. “We will lose 38 percent of our physicians.”

Opponents also cited a number of environmental impacts other than air quality, including groundwater use, low-frequency noise and a history of floods in the SE2 site.

Wastewater from the plant would be added to sewage from Sumas, which is treated just across the border in Abbotsford. Officials there indicated SE2 would sour the city on renewing the long-standing arrangement in the future.

Support for SE2 became more visible in the second round of hearings, due in large part to the efforts of local labor unions. The men and women of local construction trades say SE2 has addressed every concern EFSEC had with the plant and would bring jobs and economic stimulus, as well as needed energy, to the area.

State legislators and other supporters such as the City of Sumas repeatedly cited economic and supply concerns. They also pointed to SE2’s commitment to voluntary mitigation of greenhouse gases as a positive trend in power generation.

“It’s part of the responsible development we’d like to see on projects of this kind,” said Otto Herman, executive director of the Seattle-based labor group Rebound.

As executive secretary of the Northwest Washington Building Trades Council, Brad Owens was one of the point men eliciting community support for SE2.

“The thing that has us involved this time versus the last hearings is the realization that local people in the community who supported (SE2) were not involved in the EFSEC process,” Owens said.

Increasing energy prices contributed directly to large-scale layoffs at Georgia-Pacific West, Inc.’s Bellingham plant and Alcoa Intalco Works aluminum smelter last year, cuts that cost Whatcom County nearly 1,500 jobs. Those layoffs gave SE2 supporters even more ammunition in the effort to get the estimated $400 million plant sited, permitted and built.

“Four hundred million dollars is a big chunk of change,” Owens said. “A lot of family-wage jobs are created from their $400 million investment.”

At its peak, SE2 would employ about 25 people in day-to-day operations — but, Owens points out, the impact on local workers will be far greater.

“There will probably be about 300 to 400 construction jobs at the peak,” Owens said, adding that once the estimated two-year construction process is completed, additional employment in maintenance, supply and other industries would result from the plant’s construction.

“In terms of jobs out there, this kind of thing will be the cream of the crop,” he said. “We are labor people — bottom line, we need jobs. But not at the expense of our environment.”

Dirk Petty, of local anti-SE2 activist group Generations Affected by Senseless Power, does not disagree with Owens’ assertions about employment. He just sees them as irrelevant.

“Our standard line has been ‘It’s going to kill more people than it will employ,’” Petty said. “When the plant comes in and I’m breathing the air, that’s where I draw the line.”

GASP, like other opponents, said the region does not need additional power SE2 would supply. According to EFSEC documents, “there are dozens of sizeable gas-fired power plants being proposed or under construction in the region at the present time … The combined output potential of all proposed facilities far exceeds any forecast for demand.”

Couple that with predicted Canadian resistance to high-volume transmission lines planned to cut through British Columbia and opponents suggest the company may not even build the plant if EFSEC eventually approved it.

“This is less about power production and more about securing gas and water rights for the future,” Petty said.

Jim Fiksdal, administrative manager for EFSEC, has worked for the council for 15 years. He said SE2 ranks high in controversy and public involvement.

“For this type of project, so far, it has been the largest,” Fiksdal said. “It’s had the most number of people involved and coming to testify.”

Fiksdal, a non-voting member of the council, said EFSEC set early 2002 as a probable date for a decision, though the council is not tied to any deadline.

Part of the reason EFSEC has so much information to examine is the somewhat ambiguous mandate the council has for the scope of its investigation. EFSEC acts as a permitting body in place of more than 20 state and federal agencies. The council mainly considers environmental factors, but Fiksdal said it is not precluded from examining other variables such as economic impact and the need for employment.

“The law says (EFSEC) has to consider the broad interest of the public,” Fiksdal said. “They have a lot of work ahead of them.”

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