Public To Discuss Proposed Otay Valley Power Plant Near Otay Lakes

There will be a public meeting this Friday about the 300MW natural gas fired power plant proposed on public parkland in the Otay Valley Regional Park.

Date: 8/20/2010
Time: 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Location: Montgomery-Waller Recreation Center, 3020 Coronado Ave., San Diego

Some feel this project is being overshadowed by the controversial Sunrise Powerlink and the shutting down of the South Bay Power Plant, and is thus slipping under the community’s radar.

The need for additional power is not in contention, but some are concerned about this plant’s impact on a protected habitat.

Pio Pico Energy Center, LLC, (PPEC) submitted an Application for Certification (AFC) to the California Energy Commission (CAEC) on June 30. With a maximum capacity of 4,000 hours per year, the application states that this plant directly satisfies San Diego’s area demand for peaking and load-shaping generation.

The generating facility would utilize three General Electric (GE) LMS100 natural gas-fired, combustion turbine generators (CTGs). A new substation to be built on the project site would interconnect to two 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines located within 1,500 feet of the PPEC.

There are many questions about what the impacts will be to habitat, wildlife, the Otay Lakes County Park, future trail connections and mitigation.

Here is a list of unanswered questions about this project:
-How much smog would this power plant produce?
-How will air quality impacts be mitigated?
-How much mercury would this power plant produce?
-How tall will the smoke stacks be? What will the visual impacts be to the park?
-“This project contains a property purchase of equal or greater habitat value adding 16.5 acres adjacent to the park. Requirements include a set of open space parcels of at least 14 acres near the park to be preserved.”  San Diego News Room, 8/18/10
-Where will mitigation be done and at what ratio?
-In the above mentioned article, it was said that PPEC has potential to replace some of the nearly $3 million in average annual revenue from the South Bay Plant, and will be reinvested in providing local public services.
-What would these “local public services” be?
-What is the total amount of revenue expected from this power plant? How much of that will be going back into the park?
-What will the impacts be on future trail connections and the Otay Lakes County Park?

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Posted by Eastlaketimes on Aug 18 2010. Filed under Business in Chula Vista, Community of Eastlake, Eastlake News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry