By Scott Brinton
Now, however, the village is seeking to get out of that deadline.
Freeport and Merrick-Bellmore residents protested Plant No. 2's operation for more than a year and a half between 2001 and 2002. They charged that its unfiltered diesel exhaust was a likely cause of the area's apparently high cancer rate. In April last year, Freeport agreed to shut the plant down.
Plant No. 2's closure must take place by Nov. 30, even if Freeport hasn't completed a new, gas-fired power plant that the village intends to build in its place.
But village officials now say construction of the gas-fired plant, which is to take place at the Plant No. 2 site in south Freeport, hasn't yet begun because unforeseen circumstances have delayed the project.
If the 30-year-old Plant No. 2 closes in November, the village won't have a power plant on which it can rely for energy until the clean-burning gas plant is built, said Hubert Bianco, Freeport Electric superintendent.
The village, Bianco maintains, is committed to closing Plant No. 2 permanently, just not on Nov. 30. Referring to the plant, Bianco said in an interview, "We've made that commitment to shut down the diesels."
Bianco spoke last Wednesday at Freeport High School during a DEC public hearing to review a proposed state permit for the natural-gas plant. Written into that permit is the November shutdown deadline. The superintendent requested a second hearing with the DEC on May 7, at which time the village would make its case for eliminating the deadline from the permit.
Molly McBride, the DEC administrative law judge overseeing the hearing, didn't comment about the village's request, but accepted Bianco's statements as unsworn testimony.
The village's request left DEC officials and local civic leaders who fought Power Plant No. 2 concerned about Freeport's agreement to close the plant permanently.
Joseph Kralovich, president of Merrick's Old Lindenmere Civic Association, has said repeatedly that he believes Freeport officials do not truly wish to shut the plant down. The village, he believes, would like to keep Power Plant No. 2 and build the gas-fired plant as well. Now the village's request to back out of the Nov. 30 deadline worries him.
Matthew Reis, of the DEC, said in his testimony at the public hearing that the agency is "hopeful" that Freeport will remain committed to retiring Plant No. 2.
Bianco said people shouldn't worry that the village is trying to renege on its agreement to close the diesel plant. He said the Nov. 30 deadline simply doesn't make sense for the village, because it could leave Freeport powerless during an electrical shortage.
He also noted that the only time Plant No. 2 can now run is during a power emergency, according to its agreement with the DEC and LIPA. The plant, he said, ran only 90 minutes this winter and three hours last summer.
Still more concerns
Meanwhile, at the hearing, a host of environmental and safety concerns were raised about the proposed gas-fired plant.
Kralovich has said in the past that he would like the plant to run only on natural gas. It, however, would be a dual-fuel, 47-megawatt plant. (One megawatt lights 1,000 homes.) The plant's General Electric LM6000 turbines, which are modified aircraft engines, would be able to operate on gas or low-sulfur oil.
Freeport officials said they couldn't get a "non-interruptible" agreement to supply the village with natural gas, meaning that its supply could be cut off at any time. The oil, they say, is needed to kick in during such an emergency.
Kralovich objects to the use of oil, which he and others referred to as jet fuel during the public hearing, because even low-sulfur oil doesn't burn as cleanly as gas. The oil would inevitably cause pollution, which would be swept by the area's high winds into surrounding communities, including Merrick-Bellmore.
Reis noted that the DEC, in its proposed Title V air-quality permit for the gas plant, placed a limit on the number of hours that the plant would be allowed to run on oil. That limit, he said, is 133 hours, or 5 1/2 days, between May 1 and Sept. 30, the peak season for power plant use.
When Kralovich recently reviewed the permit, however, he found no such limit, he said.
He also expressed concern that a third turbine, which the village has had in place at Plant No. 2 for years, would not be shut down with the diesel plant. It, too, is a modified aircraft engine that runs on oil. DEC officials said that under the village's agreement to close the diesel plant, the old turbine would be allowed to operate only during a power emergency.
Vincent Greco, a Freeport civic activist who, with Kralovich, co-led the fight against Plant No. 2, said that allowing the plant to run on oil leads to another problem: storage. Some 500,000 gallons of the fuel would be kept at the gas plant, which would sit across the Meadowbrook Parkway from the Norman J. Levy Park Preserve in south Merrick.
If not properly stored, the oil could cause a disaster. For starters, Greco, a retired engineer, worries about piping natural gas that is under high pressure into a power plant with a half-million gallons of fuel on hand. One spark could cause a conflagration, Greco fears.
He's also concerned that the oil tanks wouldn't be secure enough. There are such tanks at the plant now, and they aren't attached to concrete supports, as they are at many power plants and oil-storage facilities.
He and Kralovich noted that a major hurricane could send floodwaters racing over the Meadowbrook Parkway and into the power plant site, submerging the oil tanks. If not held down by concrete supports, the tanks could float away or sink, causing an environmental disaster, according to Greco. The Power Plant No. 2 site sits only feet from the channels that lead into Merrick Bay.
"I don't know if there are any plans for containment of these tanks, but that is a must," said Greco.
Both he and Kralovich also said they were concerned that Freeport was allowed to conduct its own environmental assessment of the new gas plant. Last summer the village issued what's called a "negative declaration" about the plant, meaning that a full-fledged State Environmental Quality Review was deemed unnecessary for it.
Greco said, "I was very dismayed when I found out that Freeport would be the lead agency" in reviewing the gas plant's potential environmental impacts.
Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick), an attorney and environmental engineer, said during last Wednesday's hearing that he believes the DEC and Freeport have addressed concerns about the new power plant's emissions. He worries, however, how the plant will affect the South Shore's aesthetics.
Denenberg noted that the gas plant's smokestacks are to rise 180 feet into the air, whereas the current diesel plant's stacks measure about 125 feet tall. He is concerned that the new stacks will detract from views at the Levy Preserve and other locations.
Freeport officials say the smokestacks must rise 180 feet in order for the plant to meet current federal emission standards. They also say that emissions from the plant will be better dispersed by wind with the taller stacks.
Denenberg added that noise from the new plant is a concern. The turbines, after all, are modified jet engines and, he said, they would sound much like low-flying jets. The worry is not so much for Merrick residents, but for people in Freeport who live near the plant, the legislator said.
Greco, who lives just across the bay from the plant, suggested that the village construct a concrete sound barrier around the perimeter of the plant, not just across its southern side, as called for by current plans.
Is the plant really needed?
Greco wonders, however, whether the new power plant is needed at all. He pointed out that LIPA is building power plants across Long Island, and the authority has proposed construction of giant windmills off Jones Beach to generate power. Additionally, two private companies are seeking to stretch electric cables across the Atlantic to the South Shore to supply the Island with energy.
The activist questions why, with so much new power generation either in the works or being proposed, the village is moving ahead with construction of the gas plant, which could cost Freeport an estimated $50 to $100 million.
Greco, who fought Plant No. 2 for three decades, said of the new gas facility, "In my heart, I don't believe we need this plant."
Freeport officials say the plant is needed to meet state mandates that require the village, as an electric provider, to maintain its own ability to produce power.
Plans for the new plant are now out to bid, according to Freeport officials. The village is also seeking a private developer to build a second 47-megawatt gas plant alongside Freeport's. The developer, village officials said, would share the cost of laying down a new gas line, which would ease the burden on Freeport taxpayers.
Freeport's gas plant is to supply energy to the village and LIPA, while the second plant would provide power to LIPA only.
