Environmentalists want longer comment period on coal-fired plant

Topeka ? Environmentalists want more time for the public to comment on a proposed 895-megawatt coal-fired electric power plant proposed for southwest Kansas.

Hearings scheduled across state this week

Public hearings on Sunflower’s draft permit will be:

Monday at Blue Valley Northwest High School, 135th Street and Switzer, Overland Park.

Wednesday at the Highway Patrol Training Center Auditorium, 2025 East Iron, Salina.

Thursday at the Joyce Auditorium at Garden City Community College, 801 Campus Drive, Garden City.

All meetings will start at 2 p.m. and continue no later than 5 p.m. If needed they will reconvene at 6:30 p.m. and continue until all comments have been submitted.

A copy of the draft permit is available online at www.kdheks.gov/bar/index.html.

Opposition rally

People opposed to the proposed 895-megawatt coal-burning power plant will rally before today’s public hearing in Overland Park.

Bruce Nilles, a Sierra Club official opposed to coal-fired plants, will be among the speakers.

The rally is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Blue Valley Northwest High School, which is where the public hearing will be held beginning at 2 p.m.

Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that represents the Kansas chapter of the Sierra Club, said not enough information about the plant’s impact on air quality has been released yet.

And it said “recent advances in pollution control technology and changes in the federal regulations governing air pollution must also be considered in this permitting process.”

The period for written public comment on the proposal started July 1 and is set to expire Aug. 15. Earthjustice has requested a 60-day extension.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment may decide this week whether to grant an extension, officials said.

The project’s developers, Sunflower Electric Power Corp., said it would leave the decision up to KDHE.

There has already been one change in the public comment period.

Last week, KDHE said that meteorological data that Sunflower Electric Power Corp. used in air pollution dispersion modeling did not adjust for differences in time zones.

KDHE said it will take approximately 30 days to receive the revised information. After that data is reviewed, KDHE will issue an additional public comment period and hold an additional public hearing. But there has been no word on when that will be yet.

Meanwhile, there will be three public hearings this week on the project, which has been the focus of a heated political battle for three years.

In 2007, Sunflower Electric and its partners had proposed two 700-megawatt plants near Holcomb. Under the proposal, most of the power would go to out-of-state customers.

But KDHE Secretary Roderick Bremby shocked the utility industry by denying the permit based on concerns about the health and environmental impact of climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions from the plant.

Supporters of the project in the Kansas Legislature tried to overturn Bremby, but they were blocked by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

However, when Sebelius left her job in 2009 to join President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, the second political shock was delivered when incoming Gov. Mark Parkinson signed a deal that would allow Sunflower to build one 895-megawatt plant.