By:Scott Brinton
DEC to hold public hearing over reworked permit for Freeport's
diesel Plant No. 2
A high-level state official believes Freeport Village would, at the
least, be forced to install pollution controls at its diesel-electric Plant
No. 2, if and when a tougher, reworked Title V operating permit for the plant takes effect.
Ray Cowen, regional director for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said, "We don't believe they [Freeport] can meet the conditions that are imposed [in the permit] without very expensive upgrades." Village officials have said retrofitting the plant could cost $20 million. According to Cowen, Freeport plans to fight the new permit.
The state DEC is to conduct a public hearing over the permit on Monday, Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m., Freeport High School, 50 Brookside Ave., Freeport.
Area residents fear that the plant's exhaust might cause cancer. The California Air Resources Board labels diesel exhaust as a known carcinogen.
The current operating permit, which was issued Nov. 12, 1998 and will stand until the new one takes effect, contains no emissions limits or monitoring requirements. The revamped permit, the draft of which the DEC issued this summer, requires the plant to meet standards for particulate matter (soot) and nitrogen of oxide.
Joseph Kralovich, president of the Old Lindenmere Civic Association,
lobbied the DEC, the state Attorney General's Office and the federal
Environmental Protection Agency to include a particulate-matter standard in the permit.
Particulate is fine in size, so it is carried deep into the
lungs when humans breathe it in. It contains a host of known and suspected carcinogens.
The Oct. 22 public hearing over the permit is the first in what is
expected to be a long series of steps to activate the permit. At the hearing, anyone, including Freeport Village officials, can offer remarks about the permit.
Cowen suggests that people read the new permit, which can be found at the DEC Web site at www.deec.state.ny.us/website/dar/boss/afs/draft_atv.html. They then should seek to understand it. Further information about the 58-page document can be found at the Merrick Herald Web site, Power Plant Archive, at www.liherald.com, or at the Old Lindenmere Civic Association Web site, www.cleanituporcloseitdown.
People should put comments about the permit in writing, which they can present to the DEC administrative law judge who will preside over the legislative hearing.
At the hearing, Cowen said, "It makes no difference if you speak or write. They're given equal weight. Don't come down off the cuff. Articulate your comments in writing. That will have more impact than standing there rambling."
He also noted that, if the judge finds hundreds of people have turned out for the hearing, he or she could limit speaking time to, say, three minutes each. The best approach, Cowen said, is to offer short, prepared remarks to the judge and present the remainder in writing.
The DEC will not, as previously thought, limit speakers to those who havesent written remarks during the permit's public-comment period, which started in August.
The day after the hearing, the DEC will conduct a conference to decide which issues can be presented at the adjudicatory hearing that will likely take place over the permit. An administrative law judge will also preside over the conference, which is to take place at Freeport Memorial Library, 10 a.m., 144 West Merrick Rd., Freeport.
The DEC has no timetable as to when the adjudicatory hearing might take place, but it could begin as late as January, Cowen said. An adjudicatory hearing is much like a court trial, with witnesses called to testify. Those witnesses can then be cross-examined. The adjudicatory hearing would pit the DEC against the Village of Freeport, which has indicated in letters to the DEC that it would oppose any action to revoke its old permit, said Cowen.
The adjudicatory hearing will happen, unless Freeport agrees to abide by terms of the new permit. Cowen, though, noted, "Everyone is assuming the [DEC] and Freeport are at such odds. I doubt we will come to a meeting of theminds."
Cowen said, "They [Freeport officials] believe they are entitled to the operating permit they have, and they should be allowed to continue operating the plant as is," adding, "They think we're full of baloney." He described the village's position as intractable.
After the adjudicatory hearing, the administrative law judge will file a recommended ruling with the state DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty, who will then decide the case.
A possible deal to rebuild Plant No. 2 with cleaner-burning, gas-fired technology could render the hearings unnecessary. State Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick) last spring brought together Freeport Village and Long Island Power Authority officials to discuss such a deal.
LIPA Chairman Richard Kessel, of Merrick, said at the time that,
hypothetically, the village could bring in a third party, such as a KeySpan Electric, to rebuild the plant with natural-gas turbines. The third party would provide electricity to Freeport and LIPA.
The diesel engines that have generated such concern could then be done away with. According to a Freeport spokesperson, the village was talking with Pennsylvania Power and Light as of August.
As of early September, discussions to bring in a third party were
ongoing. In an interview earlier this month, Kessel said he was "cautiously optimistic" that a deal could be struck to close down the plant and protect Freeport's electric rates (which are now half those of the average Long Islander's).
"We don't have a deal yet, but we are constantly talking with Freeport," Kessel said. The LIPA chairman is scheduled to speak at an Old Lindenmere Civic Association meeting on Thursday, Oct. 11, 8 p.m., Birch Elementary School, 2400 Central Parkway, Merrick. He is to discuss the possible LIPA/Freeport deal, said Kralovich, the Old Lindenmere president. The meeting is to start at 7:30 p.m.
Kralovich believes that people mustn't count on a deal to close the plant. It might or might not happen. They should prepare for the public hearing. "The thing I've got to do is get people at the hearing," he said. "If no one shows up, I'm blown out of the water. It's not me. It's everyone."
People "have to show up for their own sake," Kralovich said, speaking of area residents. "This is your last chance to do something personally. If no one shows up, it's a dead issue, and we killed it with apathy."
Cowen said the hearing could take place, even if a deal were struck. It would depend on how long Freeport would keep the old plant running until a new one was built. "We would have to take a look and make a judgment" whetherthe hearing should move forward in that case, Cowen said.
Kralovich also wants the DEC to conduct a stack test immediately at the plant. A stack test would probe emissions for possible violations of the new permit's provisions.
Keri Powell, staff attorney with the New York Public Interest Research Group, said, "The DEC admits [the plant] is operating in violation of the Clean Air Act. It has the authority to order a stack test immediately.
"We have no guarantee the permit will be issued any time soon," she said, "and meanwhile, the plant continues to operate."
Cowen said, "The new standards in the new permit are not active yet," so the DEC cannot order a stack test.
