Hundreds Attend Dominion Forum There was a standing room only crowd for the League of Women Voters of Calvert County’s forum on Tues. Jan. 28 to discuss the proposed $3.8 billion expansion of Dominion Cove Point’s facility to export liquefied natural gas. Every seat was taken and many people were standing at the St. John Vianney Family Life Center auditorium that night. Moderator Annette Funn said members of the audience submitted more than 200 questions on index cards and volunteers grouped them into categories to ask the panelists. The six panelists were: Dominion Cove Point’s Vice President of LNG Operations Mike Frederick; Calvert County Commissioner Gerald W. “Jerry” Clark (R); Pace Global Energy Management Solutions and Consulting Services/Siemens Corp. Vice President Kenneth Beans; environmentalist Fred Tutman, who is the Patuxent Riverkeeper; Dr. Thomas Miller, Director of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory at Solomon's; and Commander Scott Kelly, chief of the Prevention Department at Coast Guard Sector, Baltimore. Frederick reiterated that “Dominion has been a good neighbor,” and cares about the environment. He pointed out the marsh restoration project at Cove Point and other community contributions. New equipment proposed to be installed include two gas-fired turbines, which Frederick said would re-use the exhaust heat to generate additional electricity for the plant. He added, “We believe we’re the only facility of its kind in the U.S., maybe in the world, that’s actually doing that step.” Community leaders have
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expressed concerns about emissions and potential noise from the new operation. Frederick countered that the proposed facility must comply with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) 55-decibel noise limit and that a 60-foot sound barrier wall, hidden by trees, will also protect nearby homes. He added if an incident were to happen, it be contained on the Dominion site. Frederick also said that Dominion to date has paid for about 20 Calvert volunteer firefighters to complete special training in Massachusetts and Texas.
Tutman noted that Dominion will have two off-site areas during the construction phase, and clear nearly 97 acres of treed land in Lusby for a parking and staging area. The other will be a temporary pier into the Patuxent River where equipment and materials will be brought in on barges. Dr. Miller expressed additional environmental concerns about ballast water bringing invasive species into the Chesapeake Bay from India and Japan, where the ships will be carrying the gas. He told the crowd, “These species can have dramatic - and what is important - largely irreversible impacts on the ecosystem in which they are introduced.” Coast Guard spokesman Kelly said any ballast water exchanges must
Thursday, February 6, 2013 Chesapeake Current
happen 200 nautical miles outside the US. He added that the industry and the government are working on new regulations and technology aimed at decreasing the possibility of invasive species entering waterways, the Bay included. He assured residents that the Coast Guard inspects and escorts LNG tankers like the ones that would be going in and out of Cove Point as an additional safety measure. Commissioner Clark defended the Board of County Commissioners, denying claims that Dominion’s promise of millions in additional tax revenue made them turn a blind eye to community demands for an Environmental Impact Statement. “I’ve gotten emails from people saying that we’re allowing them to buy us. ... but that just irks me tremendously bad ’cause that’s not the case,” Clark said, adding, “We have to make this a win-win for everybody.” In the days after the forum, a group called The AMP Creeks Council found through a public information act request that the Calvert County Commissioners and staff entered into a secret nondisclosure agreement with Dominion Cove Point on Aug. 21, 2012. Kelly Cana-
van, the group’s president alleges, “This calls into question the ethics and legality of several pieces of ‘sweetheart legislation’ they have passed for Dominion since then.” On Nov. 5, 2013, legislation was approved giving millions in tax breaks to Dominion. “The property tax deal packed Calvert County and the Chesapeake Bay into a treasure chest and handed Dominion the key, which was confusing to citizens. Now we see why. The Commissioners were working with Dominion’s best interests in mind, not the people’s,” Canavan charges, adding that she feels, “Hiding financial information from the public so that they cannot understand a tax deal that affects them as residents of Calvert County is unethical.”
Incident Investigated At Calvert Cliffs The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a special inspection team on Mon., Jan. 27 to the Constellation Energy Nuclear Group (CENG) LLC's Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Lusby to inspect an unplanned shutdown of both the reactors. CENG says both units at its Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant were shut down due to an electrical malfunction on the non-nuclear side of the plant. All safety systems responded as designed and the plant came offline as expected, safely and without incident, officials said.
The station’s multiple and redundant backup power systems are designed to ensure safe shutdown of the plant during electrical disturbances and those systems responded as designed. Operators are currently investigating the cause of the shutdown and will then take actions to return both units to service. The plant is communicating with the regional grid operator (PJM), and the temporary shutdown did not impact electrical service to homes and businesses in the region.