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Power Plant Threatens Midewin Prairie
Federal Agency Orders Stop To Permitting While Fate of Endangered Species Are Considered

Chicago Heights, IL-A federal agency has put on hold the Indeck Corporation's plans to build a giant coal-fired power plant in the Greater Chicago area. On September 30, 2003 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent a strongly-worded letter to other federal agencies informing them that Indeck's proposed power plant cannot go forward until there is a formal determination that the power plant would not jeopardize the continued existence of two endangered species and their critical habitat in the adjacent Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

"Threatening the state's natural heritage and the Midewin Prairie is one more reason why Indeck's power plant is the wrong project in the wrong place," said Anne Kawaters of the Sierra Club. "We need energy solutions that provide clean, safe and affordable power without jeopardizing our health and our natural heritage. It is time for Governor Blagojevich to reject this power plant proposal. Instead, he should move quickly to provide good-paying, family supporting jobs by working with Illinois companies to build new, cost-effective wind turbines like our neighbors in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas."

The two species identified by the Fish and Wildlife Service as threatened by Indeck's proposed power plant are the Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophaea) and the Leafy Prairie Clover (Dalea foliosa). Both plants are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Indeck threatens the Midewin Prairie and these two species by proposing to pave over a groundwater recharge area that is vital to the long term health of the prairie. In addition, Indeck want to emit over eight tons annually of particle pollution from its cooling towers that would be laden with various toxic chemicals to prevent algae growth. Prevailing winds would carry these toxic chemicals over the adjacent Midewin Prairie.

Earlier this year environmental groups, public health experts and consumer advocates joined together to oppose Indeck's coal plant proposal and urged the state instead of subsidizing dirty coal plants to invest scarce state resources in building clean, safe and affordable energy sources. Their concerns included Indeck's proposal to use outdated pollution control technology that would release 9,800 tons of pollution annually - a whopping five times more pollution than other more modern coal power plants in the United States. In addition, these groups oppose Indeck's giant coal plant based on the threats posed to the adjacent Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.

According to the US EPA, the Chicago region (including Will County) already violates federal air quality standards. Last summer, smog levels in the area violated federal air quality standards on over a dozen days. In addition to smog, coal burning produces tiny particles that are so small they are able to bypass the human lung's natural defenses and become lodged deep in the lungs. A March 6, 2002 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that these tiny particles cause lung cancer and heart attacks. Indeck's 9,800 tons of additional air pollution is comprised mostly of these tiny particles and would make a bad pollution problem worse.

These tiny pollution particles are already a problem in the Chicago region. For example, based on today's particle levels the US EPA is warning Chicago area residents that "[u]nusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion." (www.epa.gov/airnow).

A 2000 report by the Clean Air Task Force found that particle pollution from dirty power plants are responsible for 1,700 premature deaths, 1,110 hospitalizations, and 33,100 asthma attacks every year in Illinois. Most of these health effects hit northeastern Illinois the hardest: the report found that this power plant pollution causes 995 premature deaths, 648 hospitalizations, and 21,400 asthma attacks just in the Greater Chicago region.

This finding is supported by an article earlier this summer in the Chicago Tribune that reported that the region's asthma rates are 30 to 40 percent higher than the national average and more people die from asthma here than in any other place in the United States. "Indeck's dirty coal plant is the single biggest threat to the region's air quality we have seen in many years," said Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs for the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. "Indeck's coal plant will mean more asthma attacks and place more communities and children at risk."

The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie
The 19,000-acre Midewin represents the most significant large-scale effort ever undertaken to preserve and restore Illinois' prairie heritage. It is also the first and only national prairie preserve. Along with nearly 20,000 additional acres of adjoining federal, state, local and private lands, this area protects a multitude of rare natural communities, including dolomite prairies, one of the rarest natural communities in North America. It is also home to 348 species of plants, 108 species of breeding birds, and 27 species of mammals. Sixteen of these animals and plants are afforded protection under federal and state endangered species protection laws. The Midewin was established in 1996 at the site of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant and protects a tiny fraction (0.01 percent) of the former 21 million acres that gave Illinois its "Prairie State" nickname. Long gone are the wolf, the buffalo, the passenger pigeon, and many other native species that once roamed the Prairie State.

Leafy Prairie Clover: According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the leafy prairie-clover is a very rare plant limited to a few isolated lcoations in Illinois, Alabama and Tennessee. Since it was first observed in 1868 along the banks of the Fox River in Kane County, Illinois, its populations have declined by 45 percent, primarily due to habitat destruction. There are only 29 known populations left, including just three in Illinois. In 1991 the plant was granted federal protection.

Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid: According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this large and showy orchid species is adapted to withstand fire and periodic drought and is pollinated at night by nighthawk moths. It was first collected in 1819 near the junction of the Kiamichi and Red Rivers in the Arkansas Territory, which is now in Choctow County, Oklahoma. Historical records indicate that the orchid formerly occurred from eastern Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma eastward across southern Wisconsin, northern and central Illinois, southern Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio, and northwestern Pennsylvania to western New York and adjacent southern Ontario. In recent years its populations have declined more than 70 percent and more than 59 populations have been destroyed in six states. This dramatic decline has been due mainly to habitat destruction. In Illinois there are approximately twenty populations, fourteen are protected, and only two of these contain more than 100 plants. The orchid received federal protection in 1989.

For more information about Indeck's proposal or to receive a copy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service letter call 312.251.1680 or visit www.illinois.sierraclub.org

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American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago _ Citizens Against Ruining Environment _ Clean Air Task Force _ Illinois Public Interest Research Group _ Lake County Conservation Alliance _ Sierra Club _ Will County Green Party