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Power Play
Mark Minenberg wants to restore Fair Haven's long-mothballed English Station power plant to service.
But first he must win over enviornmental and neighborhood groups
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Business New Haven
3/19/2001
By: Susan Cornell
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In one of New Haven's poorest neighborhoods sits a gargantuan power plant whose forbidding exterior has stood silent for years. English Station, a centenarian and former United Illuminating plant that has been mothballed for nearly a decade, may soon be resurrected to provide the region with additional electricity on days when the state's demand for energy is at peak levels and wholesale prices at their highest.
The entrepreneur who wants to return it to service argues that the region will benefit from improved air quality as well as a potentially less expensive alternative to one of the state's "Filthy Five" power plants, the nearby New Haven Harbor Station. Environmental groups, however, maintain that resurrecting the plant would increase emissions and pollution-related health problems such as asthma in an area of the state where hospitalization rates for asthma are already high.
English Station was shut down in 1992 after the plant was deemed too inefficient and costly to operate. Today, however, the state's growing need for power, the harrowing experience of California and the opportunities resulting from electricity deregulation may make recommissioning the plant sensible. UI divested itself of the plant last year as part of Connecticut's electricity deregulation plan, as it chose to concentrate on distribution instead of generation.
Quinnipiac Energy, a start-up company operated by environmental lawyer Mark Mininberg, wants to dust off English Station for 23 days per year, or 600 hours, to provide electricity on the hottest days of the year. But Mininberg's plan to seek a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection is not such a hot idea to some environmental activists and Fair Haven residents.
Mininberg's background includes work in eastern Europe converting coal-fired plants from the Soviet era to natural gas. "By converting those plants, we were able to greatly reduce the air pollution which was choking the local population," he says.
As principal owner of Quinnipiac Energy, Mininberg proposes to run the plant on natural gas in two years after installing two natural gas jet engine-fired turbines. He was paid $4.25 million by UI to take English Station off its hands; full conversion to natural gas could require $100 million to as much as $200 million.
First, however, Mininberg says he needs to fire up the plant by using oil, a substantially more toxic source of pollution, in order to make enough money to convert the turbines to natural gas. If this next step, Phase II, is reached, English Station has on paper the potential to provide a cleaner and cheaper alternative to the Harbor Station plant (which generates more than 90 percent of the city's non-traffic air pollution). That's why even the environmentalists aren't in complete agreement: the short-term oil-generated phase may produce ill health effects, while the long-term plan may actually improve air quality and provide a cheaper means to meet growing energy demand.
The controversy over English Station is fraught with complexities and unknowns. Environmentally and economically, Mininberg's proposal could be a long-term winner. Or it could be a gamble that bankrupts Mininberg and/or degrades the city's environmental quality. Alternatives range from building an new plant to exploring alternative sources of energy.
Because "expert" opinions vary so widely, the jury is out on the environmental lawyer's proposal - and may remain out for some time while the benefits and costs are tallied. For now, however, the controversy seems to swirl around the following definable issues:
• Emissions - When and if the venture reaches Phase II - natural-gas generation - air pollution would drop as companies currently operating dirtier boilers convert to Quinnipiac Energy, say proponents. Those of the other side argue that the plant will increase pollution-related problems such as asthma in a city with already high rates of asthma.
The compounds in question are nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and particles in the air. Fair Haven neighbors have expressed concerned with where the emissions would go, what the smokestacks and what additional problems even miniscule amounts of extra pollution would create.
• Electricity supply - Mininberg's proposal is predicated on the benefit that Quinnipiac would afford the region by supplying additional power when the demand is greatest. Opponents argue that there is no supply problem. With three power plants going online this year and three more under construction, the extra wattage is unneeded, they say.
• Phase I pollution - Air computer modeling conducted for Quinnipiac Energy by consultant Denning Powell of Advanced Environmental Interface show the environmental impact of burning low-sulfur oil for 23 days a year is minimal, QE officials say. QE plans to operate the plant on low-sulfur (0.05 percent) oil, a fuel which is six times cleaner than the heating oil that fires home furnaces. This fuel, says Mininberg, meets the strict National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
The permit Quinnipiac seeks would qualify its boilers as a "minor" source of air pollution. QE officials say that English Station will have annual emissions lower than those of the boiler plant that supplies steam to both the Yale Medical School and Yale New Haven Hospital. Additionally, QE's Project Summary claims, "The correlation between asthma and outdoor air pollution is not well established."
However, notes Karen Hopfl-Harris, associate director for policy for Physicians for Social Responsibility in Washington, D.C., "All of those things [pollutants] have health effects." And New Haven already has some of the state's highest hospitalization rates for asthma.
On QE's dime, Powell analyzed 14 school locations including the school closest to the plant, where the effects of pollutants would presumably pose the greatest risk. None measured significantly higher than 100 micrograms per cubic meter of sulfur dioxide (the federal Clean Air Act standard allows up to 365 micrograms per cubic meter over a 24-hour average). Thus QE argues that "Projected emissions over a year of operation will generate only slightly more nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions as a single city bus engine would produce running full-out, or five buses would produce running on the streets at the speed limit."
That may be, but Hopfl-Harris points out that soot would tend to fall closer to the plant while airborne gas would travel farther, affecting the region downwind. Hopfl-Harris and others maintain that burning any oil raises concerns.
Of course, the whole point of oil-firing is to get English Station to Phase II - natural gas generation - which Mininberg says actually reduce pollution and improve air quality in the region.
But that's still just a theory. Dana Young, staff attorney for Connecticut Fund for the Environment, points out that, "It would be nice to talk about a gas plant, but there has been no application for a permit."
Additionally, she says, "If they went straight to Phase II, there wouldn't be much resistance. The issue is being respectful of the population there and the environment." Bruce Egan, a consultant for Egan Environmental Inc., agrees. "The project is not engineered and nothing has gone to the DEP."
• The project would give major industries a "cleaner" power source - Simkins Industries Inc., New Haven's second-largest point source polluter, says it would considering buying steam from English Station. By switching off Simkins' boiler, non-automotive air pollution would be reduced by about two percent, according to state estimates. Mininberg says he has talked with other companies that have expressed interest as well, which would reduce the use of older and dirtier boilers diminish.
Of course, to date only a handshake agreement exists between Simkins and Quinnipiac.
As if the project didn't raise enough questions already, here's a bonus query: What about the ecological status of the Mill River's aquatic organisms?
QE responds that it is required to initiate studies revealing this information by 2003. According to its project summary, "If there is an ecological reason for avoiding once-through cooling at the site, and if QE cannot reject the heat by steam sales, QE is committed to installing cooling towers, which would eliminate any need to reject heat to the river."
Mininberg, who grew up a mile from the plant he's trying to revive, is sanguine about the criticism his project has attracted. "People's concerns are absolutely legitimate. All we can do is put out the best science possible."
He adds, "I was given the opportunity to bring all of that experience [his work in eastern Europe] back home: If we can clean up and refurbish English Station, it's not only a great business opportunity for our company - but Fair Haven gains tremendous benefits."
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