Page 10 • Warren County Report • Mid June, 2012
County Town water deal However if not protests, some skepticism about the advisability of the town adding the plant as a customer of its central water-sewer utility system was addressed by Front Royal Mayor Tim Darr. The plant is estimated to use 250,000 to 300,000 gallons per day on average, with peak uses as high as 600,000 gallons per day. In the wake of the town having expanded its per-day capacity from 2.1 million to around 4-million gallons per day, Darr called extension of town central water and sewer to the plant a good business decision. The mayor said he believed in the end, the town and Dominion had worked out a “good business partnership.” While some criticized the town’s 10year deferment of the full out-of-town double water rate, Dominion agreed to pay for significant off-site improvements to the town’s water system in return for five years at the flat in-town rate and five years at one-and-a-half times the flat rate. Dominion will begin paying the full out-of-town double rate in its 11th year of operations. The plant is projected to have at least a 50-year lifespan. In return for a decade of lower rates, Dominion agreed to pay up to $3.5million, or 75 percent of the cost of a new water looping system into the 522 North Commercial Corridor, as well as a total of $490,000 for a new pump house and other improvements to the water system in the Guard Hill area. In exchange for that maximum $3.99-million contribution to off-site improvements, by our calculation at the submitted average daily water use of 253,000 gallons per day ($603,000 per year), Dominion will save about $300,000 per year on its water bill for five years, $150,000 for the next five for
Family Owned & Operated Since 1995
Lauding the commonwealth’s reputation as one of the most business-friendly states in the nation, Bolling echoed Governor Bob McDonnell in calling both coal and nuclear integral parts of Virginia ’s energy future. Bolling even called Virginia “the Saudi Arabia of coal”
a total of $2.25 million on its water bill, with comparable savings on sewer service. Environmentally conscious … Warren County Administrator Doug Stanley noted that the county did not sell out the environment in exchange for this visit from a revenue-generating corporate “Santa Claus”. “The Warren County Power Station project is extremely important to Warren County. It is important because it … will be a tremendous economic benefit to the County. But believe me, the leadership, both staff and elected officials; have not sacrificed the protection of the environment for tax dollars. We appreciate Dominion’s approach to the project which has been to stay on the cutting edge of technology in providing as clean a plant as financially practical,” Stanley said, pointing out, “The station will use only natural gas as a fuel and have emissions controls to reduce nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide. As part of the approval, Dominion agreed to close a coal station in West Virginia (as part of its state permitting process Dominion gained clean energy “credits” by closing a coal-fired Bayard, WV plant, a move Virginia’s DEQ projects to both improve the air quality
and reduce the incident of acid rain blowing our and Shenandoah National Park’s way). As a result, the overall air quality in Shenandoah National Park will improve while the electricity available to power our homes increases. “Thank you Dominion for the stewardship you have shown to the environment and our community. The seeds that we have sown over the past year in bringing this project to fruition will bear fruit for many, many years to come and will help us grow as a community in a fiscally and environmentally responsive manner,” Stanley concluded. or not - Saudi Arabia of coal? But if helping reduce environmentally-damaging coal-fired energy production as part of the process of having this plant approved seemed like a good idea to some, Lt. Governor Bill Bolling indicated ALL energy options – even ones scientifically-proven to be environmentally destructive; or potentially catastrophically deadly and expensive – are all on the table for Virginia’s current administration. Lauding the commonwealth’s reputation as one of the most businessfriendly states in the nation, Bolling echoed Governor Bob McDonnell in calling both coal and nuclear integral parts of Virginia’s energy future.
Bolling even called Virginia “the Saudi Arabia of coal” in pushing for additional coal-fired energy production in the state. Despite the continually unfolding warnings of the March 2011 Fukishima nuclear plant disaster in Japan – possibly including as many as 14,000 otherwise unexplainable deaths, primarily of infants under the age of one year in the U.S. alone, according to one medical journal report – and an unexpectedly powerful 5.9 earthquake epicentered 11 miles from Dominion’s North Anna nuclear power plant in central Virginia last August, not to mention the April 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Bolling then added nuclear and offshore drilling to Virginia’s wish list for future energy production and economic development.
Beauty Designs
by Lorie
Jeannie Henry
Wed, Fri & Sat 9 - 3 • Thurs 12 - 7
Nails by
However Bolling then acknowledged sustainable as another, if seemingly secondary future energy option in the commonwealth. “But, we also want to be a leader in alternative forms of energy,” Bolling said after his homage to coal, nuclear and off-shore drilling. “Here, we have a natural gas project, a very good project from an energy production standpoint and from an environmental preservation standpoint. It’s a win for Warren County and for Front Royal.” But what about the rest of the commonwealth, we were left to wonder of the energy future Bolling described.
Royal Family
Bowling Center Behind Gateway Plaze Rt. 522 So., Front Royal 540-636-3113
Terri
Wed 10 - 5 • Thurs 10 - 6 10-A Cloud St. Front Royal
540-636-1280
Come out & play in the dark Friday & Saturday 11pm-1am
Xtreme Special! $10 per person, unlimited bowling including shoes! Come check out our new light show!!!
485 South St. 540-636-3400
Creative Touch
“Quality Work, at a price you can afford!”
Paint & Drywall Free Estimates! Licensed/Insured • References • Interior/Exterior Commercial • Industrial • Residential • Custom Colors • Staining • Wallpaper Removal • Drywall Installation and Repair • Pressure Washing
Read all issues in their entirety FREE on www.WarrenCountyReport.com
(540) 636-6032
Offering:
• Student Classroom • Behind-the-Wheel • Re-Examinations
Accepting applications for our Accelerated Classroom starting in June 1!
$25 OFF Behind the Wheel Driving Lessons Expires 6/31/12
214 East Jackson Street • Front Royal, VA
540-622-6900
We are now a nonsmoking facility with a smoking lounge
RENT-A-LANE $10 per person Sat 2-4P.M. Sun 12-2p.m.&3-5p.m.
2 HOURS UNLIMITED Bowling Up to 8 people per lane
“Monday Dollar Day”
$1 Game ~ $1 Shoes
$1 Hot Dogs ~ $1 Small Drinks $1 Fries!
ALL DAY!!! royalfamilybowl.com