SEWARD--When the last great Johnstown flood poured into this community in 1977, the local power plant was inundated, but the adjacent village of Robindale was washed off the map.
Now that power plant, built in 1919, has been put into long-term cold storage, and the former site of Robindale has given way to parking and a materials storage area for the next generation of electrical production at Seward.
Bringing a relatively new technology to the area at an unprecedented level, the $800 million Seward generating station, the largest single project in this area since--well, since the Homer City power plant was built in the 1960s--is coming on line this year.
Owned and operated by Houston-based Reliant Energy, the facility will use a process known as "circulating fluidized bed" (CFB) combustion, which blows large amounts of air into a furnace, not unlike a hot-air popper. The process thoroughly burns low-grade waste coal and captures its remaining heat value--measured in British thermal units (BTUs), the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.
Seward's new power plant will turn waste coal--left behind as massive, ugly boney piles by the region's traditional coal-fired generating stations--into 521 megawatts of electricity per hour. That's more than two and a half times the electrical output of the old Seward plant and almost five times the capacity of the next largest waste coal plant in Pennsylvania--108 megawatts per hour.
In fact, the new facility will be the largest waste coal power station in the world, when it gets fully up to speed.
The timing of the Seward project couldn't be more appropriate, as America's energy producers are looking once more to coal as an economical alternative to other higher-priced fuels (see accompanying story).
Other facets of the project have sparked either excitement (over job creation) or concern (about increased truck traffic serving the plant). Opinions are mixed about the facility's environmental impact.
Dick Imler, general manager, reported construction of the plant and supporting buildings is "99 percent complete," with Reliant hoping by late June to formally take over custody of the East Wheatfield Township site from contractors.
He indicated a major milestone was expected to occur this week: an initial waste fuel firing, producing electricity at lower levels for short durations.
Meanwhile, there will be continued "debugging" of the plant's systems, during "approximately 90 days of testing and fine-tuning," he said.
Imler noted the CFB process was "developed in Europe more than 25 years ago. It never really caught on in the United States until the late 1980s, and most of the (previous) plants here are relatively small."
In addition to squeezing power out of material that previously was unusable, the new Seward plant will help fuel the area economy with new and retained jobs. However, most of the impact will be in supporting industries like truck drivers, rather than at the plant itself.
According to Imler, 60 existing Reliant positions have been preserved at the plant, while 20 additional jobs have been created--mostly in the material handling area, where waste coal and limestone are stored and processed before being brought together in one of the plant's two boiler units. Limestone binds with sulfur dioxide gas created in the boiler, reducing the amount of the pollutant which is released into the air.
At the peak of construction, about 2,300 workers were busy getting the Seward plant ready for its debut.
Imler noted there will be more than 200 supporting jobs created in the trucking and mining industries--including at a limestone quarry in Blair County, where the output will be dedicated to the Seward generating station.
Also, he said, studies have suggested there will be about 250 additional spin-off jobs created in such areas as coal truck maintenance.
The new plant's CFB system is an example of "clean coal" technology, Imler said. "A benefit is that emission levels are significantly reduced. We're going to be state-of-the-art on emission controls."
Because a CFB facility operates at lower temperatures than other types of power plants burning solid fuels, there are lower emissions of another pollutant--nitrogen oxide.
Imler indicated the old Seward power plant emitted nitrogen oxide at a level of .5 pounds per million BTUs produced. Sulfur dioxide was emitted at 2.8 pounds per million BTUs.
At the new plant, those levels are to be cut to .15 pounds of nitrogen oxide and .6 pounds of sulfur dioxide. Those levels are maximum figures allowed for the facility, in an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
In addition, Imler said, other particulate matter released via the plant's 600-foot smokestack--the only portion of the old facility which will remain in use--should amount to just one-tenth of the previous level: .1 pound per million BTUs.
During its expected 30 years of operation, the plant will consume 100 million tons of the region's boney piles, helping to abate a major source of acid drainage which inhibits aquatic life in streams and rivers.
Imler indicated a five- to seven-year supply of waste coal has been identified at various sites in Indiana, Cambria and Somerset counties.
Local environmentalists are excited about a demonstration project which will use the fly ash byproduct from the plant's combustion process to treat acid drainage from the adjacent abandoned Nineveh Mine.
Imler explained. "A significant residual amount of limestone will be left in the ash," providing an acid-neutralizing feature to the byproduct.
Planners hope to use the ash to fill the early 19th century coal shaft--keeping more water from entering the mine while improving what already leaches into the Conemaugh River.
"We'll take fly ash that's high in lime (content) and alkalinity, make a slurry of it and inject it into the mine," explained Mike Quinn of the Conemaugh Valley Conservancy, one of the environmental organizations taking part in the effort.
Other partners in the project include state mine reclamation officials and the Kiski-Conemaugh River Basin Alliance. They expect several million tons of fly ash will be needed to fill the mine.
Imler has noted, "For every pound of material we put into the plant, about .7 to .75 pounds will come out."
Each year, he indicated, the Seward plant will consume about 3.5 million tons of waste coal and about 750,000 tons of limestone.
Other environmental watchdogs, while acknowledging that the emission numbers are headed downward at Seward, remain less than enthusiastic about the switch to waste coal as a fuel.
David Masur, director of the non-profit Philadelphia-based PennEnvironment, asserts that "clean coal technology is a misnomer...There are mountains of evidence that burning coal has a detrimental effect on the environment and on human health."
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sulfur dioxide can exacerbate temporary breathing difficulty for people with asthma who are active outdoors. Long-term exposure can cause respiratory ailments and aggravate heart disease.
Sulfur dioxide can interact with other chemicals in the air, forming tiny particles. Those particles may react with nitrogen oxide and other airborne substances, falling to the earth as acid rain.
Larger amounts of waste fuel must be burned, compared to higher-grade coal, to generate power. As a result, Masur contended, at facilities such as the Seward plant, "We could actually see carbon dioxide emissions go up," a factor which has been cited in global climate change.
He said his group and others like it are wary about the new waste coal technology, indicating there has not been sufficient study of the process by independent researchers outside of the power industry.
Instead, he called for "Pennsylvania to get on board with real renewable energy," citing the wind farms which have begun to proliferate in areas such as Somerset County.
Boney piles are both an eyesore and a source of water pollution, Masur noted. But, he suggested, forcing the companies which left behind the mounds of waste to responsibly clean them up is preferable to re-burning the material and adding to the pollutants in the air.
"We shouldn't be using taxpayer dollars to fund burning of waste coal," he said.
The new Seward plant was funded, in part, with $400 million in tax-exempt revenue bonds issued by the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority.
Reliant can't be faulted for ignoring the boney pile in its own back yard: a ridge of coal refuse which once bordered Robindale.
Imler explained, beginning in the fall of 2000, the two million tons of waste material was removed "down to the virgin soil". Then the material was mixed with 2.2 million tons of ash from an area co-generation plant and was reapplied at the site.
That process raised the grade between 10 and 30 feet above the original elevation. That will boost the plant above the 100-year flood level, which should free it from any future high-water woes.
As a final step, Imler said, "We'll be placing topsoil and seeding it to establish some vegetation."
Also balanced against the jobs and energy generated by the plant will be the noise, dirt and traffic complaints created by an influx of trucks hauling coal waste to Seward.
Initially, Imler said, waste fuel is being transported from a boney pile in Ebensburg and from a waste site in Plum Borough.
At least to begin with, Imler is expecting 600 trucks to arrive each weekday, between 5:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
"Most of the traffic, in the early stages, will be on the Rt. 22 corridor," he noted.
Residents in East Wheatfield Township, in particular, have voiced concerns about disruption of their neighborhoods by the passing trucks.
To ease anxieties, Reliant officials have noted all trucks serving the power plant will be covered with tarps, to limit the spread of dirt and ash. Also, the trucks are to be equipped with mufflers and will have identification numbers posted on the driver's side of the vehicle, so citizens can lodge complaints about individual drivers.
In addition, to promote traffic safety, Reliant constructed a new bridge over adjacent State Route 2008 (Power Plant Road) and the Norfolk Southern rail line, for trucks bringing shipments to the plant.
Also, the company is bearing the costs of a new traffic signal in nearby Armagh--on Rt. 56 at the Rt. 22 westbound off-ramp. The signal was deemed necessary, according to a traffic impact study conducted for the new power plant.
Imler pointed out Reliant will be required to follow up with additional biannual studies, to assess and address any future changes in traffic congestion along the plant delivery routes.
Once unloaded into one of six hoppers and screened to ensure there are no particles larger than two inches, incoming waste coal will be transported via an underground tunnel to an expansive fuel storage barn.
Measuring 120,000 square feet in area and 100 feet in height, it can contain up to 44,000 tons of the incoming boney pile material--or about enough to operate the plant for four days.
Gradually fed by a conveyor belt, the waste coal particles will be reduced to no more than a quarter inch in a crusher building before advancing to one of eight storage silos in the plant's boiler building.
Incoming limestone will proceed through a separate processing chain before being introduced to the combustion process.
A circular pavilion will store up to 14,000 tons of the stone, before it is graded and sized and transferred to one of four silos serving the plant's boilers.
Following the combustion process, the resulting fly ash will be stored for up to four days among three tall silos towering 192 feet above the ground.
Imler explained two "baghouse" facilities act as giant vacuum cleaners--capturing particulate matter from the plant emissions and channeling it into large bags for disposal Each baghouse contains 8,600 bags, each measuring 25 feet in length.
Water from the adjacent Conemaugh River is used to create the steam to run the plant's turbines before recondensing in cooling towers and being stored in ponds for reuse in the generation process.
A single large cooling tower typically is a dominant feature at many other traditional power plants in the area. Instead, Imler noted, the new Seward station will use 20 smaller cooling units, topped by fans and clustered together in a common building.
The towers will be able to handle up to 260,000 gallons of water per minute.
Ideally, none of the thermal energy transferred to the plant's water stream will be released back into the river.
"It's designed to be as close to a zero-discharge facility as you can get," Imler said.
"It will have some positive benefit" on river conditions, he said. But he noted that improvement likely won't be enough to transform the stretch of water into a thriving fish habitat.
According to Imler, there is no way plant officials can tell the ultimate destination of the energy the facility will be creating. The power will be sold on the wholesale market through the PJM grid--a three-state interconnection of electric distribution systems in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland.
An electrical substation at the Seward facility has been revised to accommodate the new power plant. Imler noted the old plant produced 115,000 volts of electricity. But the new plant will produce a 230,000-volt current, allowing transmission over longer distances.
Eventually, the new plant will add to the property tax bases of Indiana County, East Wheatfield Township and United School District. Reliant will begin paying the local taxes after an initial five-year waiver granted to the plant under the local PROSPER (Promoted Rehabilitation of Subsidized Property for Economic Revitalization) economic development incentive.
Martin Medvetz, the county's chief assessor, is hoping settlement of an assessed property valuation for the new plant can be achieved without any legal battle, through mutual negotiation and an independent appraisal--as occurred with a Reliant property in Clarion County.
A settlement already was reached for the old Seward power plant, establishing an assessed valuation last year of $428,440 for the facility and five parcels of land upon which it is centered.
That has resulted in annual tax bills of $39,844 due to the school district and $4,284 to the township.
Although it now sits idle, since the old plant is remaining in place, Medvetz noted its assessment will remain on the books, unless it is successfully appealed by Reliant.
III
While boney piles represent a segment of the coal industry previously untapped for electric generation, the region's traditional coal industry isn't taking a back seat.
The rising prices of such other fuels as natural gas are driving a return to coal as a prime choice for utilities.
Over the past four years, the price of natural gas has almost tripled, from $2 per one million British thermal units of heat produced to more than $6 per million BTUs.
On the other hand, coal costs under $1 per million BTUs.
There are at least 94 new coal-fired electric plants currently planned across 36 states--with a combined generating output capable of powering 62 million American homes.
After a nearly decade-long cold shoulder for coal, utilities are making a sudden rush back to the mining industry--a movement which has gone largely unheralded by either government officials or environmental organizations.
A jump in proposed coal-fired plants over the past three years, representing an estimated investment of $72 billion, would expand the nation's coal-generating capacity by 62 gigawatts, or about 20 percent above the current level. Those figures were reported last month by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Currently, about one billion tons of coal are consumed domestically each year But experts suggest that figure could rise by 10 million tons per year, or one percent, if just half of the proposed new coal-fired plants come to fruition
In Indiana County, a number of veteran union miners who left the coal fields over the past decade, amid an onslaught of local mine closings, are now being called back by their former employer, to help with increased production at mines which have remained in production to the south.
If the coal comeback continues, many such mine workers may be attracted back to the field, with the promise of qualifying for pension benefits.
Nationally, the return to coal could bolster the United States' independence from foreign fossil fuels. There are said to be 250 years' worth of coal reserves still to be extracted.
But groups such as the Sierra Club warn of the long-term environmental costs of relying once more on a fuel which releases harmful substances into the environment--along with the heat and warmth it generates.
Though not perhaps as large a factor as the growing popularity of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, coal-fired smokestacks already are a prime culprit in the spread of airborne mercury and greenhouse gases.
According to Robert Dickinson, an atmospheric scientist and climate modeler with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the proposed new U.S. coal plants would add about one-tenth of a percent to the world's yearly carbon dioxide emissions.
