CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Tenaska has set a Tuesday, July 28 date for an environmental open house from 6-8 p.m. at Fluvanna County High School on its Expedition Generating Station project that Fluvanna County Supervisors approved back in March, according to a company release.
Tenaska on April 30 filed an air permit application with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for impacts the gas-powered plant will make, and “is preparing Expedition’s application for a wastewater discharge permit under the Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES), administered by DEQ,” a Tenaska spokesperson told Cville Right Now in a statement.
That application is expected to be filed in the next month or so.
In April, Tenaska stated it would have an open house after the air and water applications were filed, and would have this open house prior to the water filing.
“Join us to learn about the environmental impacts associated with the Expedition Generating Station proposed for Fluvanna County and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s permitting process,” said a flier being distributed to the community. “The meeting will include an air quality informational briefing and general project update, followed by the opportunity to speak with subject matter experts in an open house format.”
Tenaska has submitted a Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) permit to the DEQ “required by any major new source that is being constructed and any project at an existing major source that results in a significant net emission increase,” according to the DEQ permitting page.
“A major source is any source with the potential to emit over 250 tons per year (tpy) of a single criteria pollutant or is in one of the listed source categories under 9VAC5-80-1615 and has the potential to emit over 100 tpy of any criteria pollutant,” according to the DEQ.
“PSD permits are issued in areas that are in attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The PSD permit requires the source to perform an air quality analysis and to install Best Available Control Technology (BACT).”
Tenaska’s 377 page application includes a breakdown of what equipment will be installed and used at the plant, and the potential impacts of the equipment. According to the application, the plant will emit past standards of nine of the 10 pollutants that are listed, and includes the BACTs in the plant components designed to mitigate the pollutants to acceptable state and federal standards.
Fluvanna Horizons has been monitoring and organizing opposition to the power plant expansion on Branch Rd. claiming it will cause significant health issues among residents not just near it, but in adjacent counties in Central Virginia.
“This is a specific kind of permit triggered by a specific amount of emissions,” said Sharon Harris, one of the organizers of the Fluvanna Horizons coalition, to Cville Right Now. “We find that really interesting from our perspective because we heard from the developer throughout that al their emissions will be well below the federal standards and that they had a good record of keeping their emissions low and safe.
“We think this kind of interesting because this meeting is triggered because they applied for a PSD permit under the federal Clean Air Act, so they know that the emissions are going to be above the threshold of what is considered safe or permittable and the open house is a require aspect of the permitting process,” Harris said.
“Expedition cannot move forward without an Air Permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ),” according to a Tenaska statement on the air permit. “The agency will thoroughly review whether the plant can meet stringent air quality standards under the U.S. Clean Air Act. These standards are designed to protect the most vulnerable members of society, including the elderly, children and people with asthma.”
“Preliminary air modeling of both Expedition and the existing Tenaska power plant show the combined emissions of these facilities are well below the federal limits. Once the plant is operational, Expedition will be required to submit quarterly air emissions monitoring reports, semi-annual monitoring and deviation reports, annual compliance certification and annual emissions inventory to DEQ. We must also submit quarterly CEMS (Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems) data to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” Tenaska stated.
“The issue that has attracted the most attention is the level of PM2.5 – which is small particulate matter that comes from a variety of sources including wood burning, car and truck exhaust, windblown dust, wildfires, pollen and power plants,” the statement said.
“In 2024, the Biden Administration reduced the annual standard for PM2.5 by 25% after considering the latest health literature from experts, input from EPA’s independent Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and hundreds of thousands of public comments. The new standard was applauded by many public health and environmental groups. The EPA Administrator certified that the new standard would protect, with an adequate margin of safety, those with pre-existing cardiovascular and respiratory disease, children and elderly residents.”
The company acknowledged the standards could be loosened under the current Administration but pledged they will comply with the more stringent standards.
The BACTs in the plant components are highly technical, but they generally involve making sure the systems run the most efficient way possible so they are not working any harder which would mean more emissions.
They also involve using low-sulfur gas off the pipelines and using low-sulfur fuels in any backup generators.
The Board of Supervisors in the spring also approved a Special Use Permit allowing stacks higher than previous county limits so the emissions won’t inundate areas close to the plant.
Fluvanna Horizons along with opponents of the plant that includes the Southern Environmental Law Center said while the higher stacks may mitigate some pollution closer to the plant, they will only serve to assure the pollutants are spread over a wider area of the region, and the cumulative effects will be adverse especially to those with health issues.
The SELC has also presented in public hearings research showing any amount of PM2.5 emission is hazardous to human health.
Fluvanna Horizons has questions about what type of forum the open house will be.
They’d like the presentation to include an audience so questions can be asked collectively, instead of what they said a previous open house during plant consideration which was small groups of people asking questions of individuals scattered at the event where one couldn’t necessarily hear questions others would ask.
