Sierra Club W&W Information Guides, Lake County, IL

Woods & Wetlands

Power Plants
and
Our Environment

Proposed Power Plant Sites Updated 7/4/01
IL Passes $3.5B Handout for Dirty Coal Plants
Partial listing of only the W&W Region
Libertyville, Mallory Referendum	Moraine Hills State Park, Holliday Hills	Zion 1	Zion 2
North Chicago	Woodstock, Pleasant Valley	Your Town?	Your Town?
Other IL Regions: Aurora
Warrenville near Fermilab Butterfield & Eola 870 MW	DuPage Airport near Fermilab Defeated - for now! 800 MW	West Chicago near Fermilab Defeated - for now! 300 MW	Your Town?
Alternatives
Efficiency	Solar Power	Wind Power	Microturbines
Information relevant to all powerplant sites.		The Truth About Ozone.

There were proposals from 30 companies for new power plants with a total of 100 turbines, totaling over 16,000 MW (the Zion nukes were 2,000 MW) of new generating capacity as of December 1, 1999 in Illinois. As of January 11, 2000 there are 40 companies. We are working against the clock to get the legislature to address the need for regional planning and siting. We need you to call your legislator and ask for Illinois EPA to play a greater role. We think that

construction of these plants should not destroy or degrade habitat for rare, threatened or endangered species.
these plants should not be sited near preserved natural areas where the noise, light, and air pollution they generate will disturb the wildlife, or the human visitors. If built at all, new power plants should be located in urban brownfields and existing industrial areas, close to the areas where the electricity would be used.
proposed operation of these plants should not be permitted to overdraw or deplete our water resources.
these plants should not be permitted without an established local need. Connection to the electric powerline "grid" will allow energy generated here to be transmitted beyond Illinois. Because our power lines are relatively new, our region could become an electricity generation center.
the conservation and efficiency programs we've won should be given a chance before we surrender our open space and our communities to new power plants. This should be a primary consideration in regional energy planning.
permitting agencies should consider the total multiple impacts of many plants, not just one at a time.
new plants should be required to make available the waste heat they generate (otherwise accounting for more than 50% of the energy they use) for companion industries and space heating, in order to reach high efficiency standards.
all power plants should be placed on a schedule to comply with modern standards of the Clean Air Act, especially the coal plants grandfathered when the Act became law.

Electricity generation accounts for half of the air pollution in Illinois, and most of it is unnecessary. Coal fired plants, with their grandfathered exemptions to the Clean Air Act, are still polluting nearly three decades later, and are the major culprits. But even if they continue to flout our environmental laws, there is much we can do to reduce the pollution they generate. We waste much of the energy generated, and upgrading our major appliances (air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.) could cut this, our electric bills, and the associated pollution, by at least 25%. Since electric utilities deregulated in Illinois, we've helped fight for and win programs to encourage and fund conservation and efficiency (including $250M from ComEd in 1999!). Efficiency measures alone could easily erase the "need" cited by the companies proposing to build new powerplants in our region. You can do it yourself, right away, and it will save you money. Discover which local retailers are participating in EPA's Energy Star program, and how the program even provides attractive financing for heating and cooling systems.

To find out exactly who your federal and state representatives are, and how to reach them, click the logo, and then enter your Zip+4 code.

Gas Turbine Power Plants are similar in many ways, but there are important variations. Peakers must start quickly, and rely on a "simple cycle" jet engine and turbine to drive a generator. They throw away about 2/3 of the energy from the fuel right out the stack as super hot exhaust plume. Instead of throwing that energy away, "combined cycle" plants add an additional steam turbine/generator that uses the hot exhaust to boil water into steam. This roughy doubles the energy efficiency, and only 1/3 of the energy is wasted. However, the steam cycle requires huge quantities of water. Operations of gas turbine facilities by other companies has revealed that the simple cycle part of a combined cycle facility can be operated alone as a peaker, with the secondary steam cycle operating when longer startup times are scheduled, and this is the typical startup routine for a such a plant. There are several other options for putting the exhaust heat to use, particularly if the power plant is located near other industrial processes that require heat. It can even be used to provide cooling through a curious absorptive cycle! Few of these are viable when the power plant is sited in rural open space.

Groundwater Management Bill Introduced By Rep. Jack Franks Thanks to the outcry of activists on this issue, the work of Lake County Board member Bonnie Carter, and the County Board Resolution (next item), Rep. Franks has introduced legislation to deal with our limited ancient groundwater resource. It gives power to regulate use of groundwater to select Counties. Please call Rep. Franks and thank him for introducing this bill on 1/13/000: 815-334-0063 (click the logo for other ways to contact him). This bill died in committee.
A bill to study the problem was introduced in the Senate by Klemm, SB1672 , and now sponsored in the House by Andrea Moore. Please ask your state Senator to support this bill.

Lake County Board Resolution W&W is proud of the County Board for unanimously passing this resolution asking the IEPA to delay action on all pending peaker plant permits until appropriate guidelines can be established.

Microturbines These miniature peaker power plants are the size of a broom closet, and designed to be the primary source of electricity for large stores or businesses. They could be a better solution, or they could be worse, but they are coming to a location near you in 2000.

Increased Exposure to Pollutant Aerosols Under High Voltage Powerlines
A. P. Fews, D. L. Henshaw, P. A. Keitch, J. J. Close and R. J. Wilding:
International Journal of Radiation Biology, Vol. 75, no. 12, pages 1505-1521, 1999.
Powerlines produce corona ions that attach to pollutants and cause a 1.5 to 3 times increased deposition of pollutants on the body. This would apply to the pollutants generated by the plant if the plume mingles with the corona ion stream. Since the stacks are near transmission wire height, this is likely. (Posted globally on 12/8/99.)

IL EPA and Gas Power Plant Siting
Open letter from W&W to IL Representatives on the need to regulate siting of these plants.

Sierra Club Policy
Sierra Club has had electric powerplant siting policy since 1978, and it addresses the heart of the issues we are now facing with every proposed plant.

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Woods & Wetlands

Power Plants and Our Environment

Proposed Power Plant Sites

Power Plants
and
Our Environment