CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska said it intends “to appeal the decision by the Planning Commission that the proposed Expedition Generating Station is not substantially in accord with the county’s comprehensive plan,” a company spokesperson told Cville Right Now in an email.

“The project would directly support the plan’s stated goals of economic development and financial sustainability, rural area preservation and environmental resource protection,” Vice President for Communications Timberly Ross said.

The Fluvanna County Planning Commission Jan. 13 voted 3-1 to reject approval of a new Tenaska natural gas-fueled electric power plant proposed next to an existing one.

The plant currently operating off Branch Road south of the Cunningham community currently generates 1000-megawatts of electricity a day, and the proposed new plant is expected to generate more than 1500.

“Our existing facility has been critical to the economic stability of Fluvanna County for more than 20 years,” Ross wrote. “We’ve been among the top two taxpayers since our first facility began operating, and our plant employs 29 hard-working employees who are part of the fabric of the community. At the same time, we place little burden on local government and community resources and are truly invested here.”

Jennifer Ruffner, who presented a petition on behalf of Fluvanna Horizons Alliance opposing the new plant, said Tuesday night, “Many of us chose to live in Fluvanna precisely to avoid chronic exposure to industrial scale pollution. We did not choose to live in New York or Los Angeles but chose a rural county with a reasonable expectation of cleaner air, lower cumulative exposure, and land use decisions that reflect that character.”

“Clearly, the presence of our existing facility has not deterred residents from moving to Fluvanna County or from staying here,” Ross’ email responded in regard to the growth the county has experienced. “As highlighted in the memo prepared by the former director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, our facility complies with standards for air and water that are intentionally designed to protect human health and the environment.”

“Preliminary air quality modeling for maximum cumulative impacts from both the existing plant and Expedition combined predicts emissions to be 7 times less than the federal and state standards, and the Rivanna River, where the existing plant discharges, is among the healthiest in the state,” Ross wrote.

Opponents note this project is not in a growth area, and residents already deal with noise from the current plant. During one of the public input hearings in the past, residents said a low hum could be heard as far as Cunningham Creek Winery about a mile away.

“A natural gas power plant does have sound associated with it,” Tenaska Vice President of Development Jarrod Pitts told Cville Right Now in a phone interview. “But Tenaska has designed the project to have a very low sound profile.”

“In fact, as part of the initial permitting for this project, there’s a requirement for this project to meet certain sound standards that are lower than recommended by the EPA, lower than standards in place in surrounding counties, ” Pitts added, “and the existing project over the last 20 years has consistently been at or below these very robust sound standards.”

In addition, Pitts said they have been working with the community to mitigate sound even more and plan to add additional evergreen trees to the existing plant to provide additional sound buffer to the facility.

“Also, for the new project,” Pitts notes, “We’re committed to designing and building this project with best-in-class sound mitigation technology, and so we’ve detailed a lot of the new equipment that will be built into the project that will help make it best-in-class from a sound perspective.”

At Tuesday’s planning commission meeting, Lake Monticello resident Tracy Smith contended the first plant shouldn’t be there in the first place, saying, “There was no substantial accord review done for the first Tenaska plant.”

“That wasn’t a minor oversight, and it was a failure to follow state law,” she said. “The only reason Fluvanna residents couldn’t challenge that in court today is because the statute of limitations has run out.”

Smith said she understands the county is doing its due diligence in this case but asserted that “the truth is we shouldn’t have had the first plant to begin with and that mistake has already shaped this community and harmed residents for the last 25 years. Now Tenaska is asking to double down.”

In response, Pitts told Cville Right Now, “I want to state that the first facility did obtain all of the local, state, and federal approvals that were required at that time.” The current plant, which generates 1000-megawatts a day, started operation in 2004.

Commissioner Loretta Johnson Morgan was equally incredulous Tuesday night.

“I was surprised we were even asked to do this substantial accord when it wasn’t done on the first one. How did it get passed? No one can explain how it was done,” Morgan said. “And now all of a sudden this time, because they want to build an additional plant, we’re being asked to do this, which pretty much I think is a slap in the face to Fluvanna County.”

Pitts told Cville Right Now that Morgan’s account of the events was correct.

“Those were not required at that time for the existing facility and want to just reiterate that facility went through all the permits and approval that were required at that time,” Pitts said. “But obviously for this project, substantial accord is needed and that’s why we’re working through that process with Fluvanna County.”

Pitts said PJM Interconnection, which runs the regional grid through which power is generated from Dominion, CVEC, the existing Tenaska plant, and others, in their latest capacity report indicates an approximately 6,000-megawatt shortfall relative to electricity demand they will need to meet.

“And so obviously the Expedition project being at 1,500-megawatts could be a key component in helping bring that much-needed additional electricity generation onto the grid,” Pitts said. “In fact, this project was selected by PJM into their reliability resource initiative. It was one of 51 projects selected due to their importance for helping provide reliable energy on the grid.”

The project will also be integrated onto Fluvanna County’s grid.