San Jose keeps arrogantly ignoring South County requests
The headline said it all: “Still no air monitors at Metcalf Plant.”

When Calpine rushed the natural gas fueled Metcalf Energy Center through the regulatory approvals process in the midst of California’s manufactured energy crisis, South County residents were promised that an air quality monitoring station would be placed south of the plant – the direction of prevailing winds – to track the travels of the pollution the plant emits.

Metcalf Energy Center opened in June 2005, yet still no air monitor tracks emissions from that plant that travel toward South County.

South County officials have asked nicely that a southern air monitor be installed posthaste, but San Jose officials don’t feel our urgency.

In fact, they’re talking openly about breaking their promise.

“At this point, for the downwind (south) location, this is something that may have to come back to the (San Jose) City Council to see if the agreement should be amended,” San Jose Planning Director Joe Horwedel told reporter Marilyn Dubil.

It’s time for South County officials – and perhaps health- and environmental-related nonprofit agencies – to put some bite in their bark.

It’s time for a lawsuit to force the installation of the monitor. Given the geography of South County, it’s a reasonable guess that carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and oxides of nitrogen – that is, air pollution – emitted by the Metcalf Energy Center travels southward and is trapped in the valley.

Breathing those contaminants is harmful to human health, especially for people with lung or heart conditions.

Given that, it’s understandable that San Jose and Calpine officials might prefer that South County residents not know what the Metcalf Energy Center is pumping into our air.

But we don’t know unless the southern air monitoring station is installed. South County’s concerns about the impact of the Metcalf energy Center were brushed aside when the power plant was approved.

We can’t let that continue to happen.

With San Jose officials openly considering reneging on their long-overdue promise, our elected officials must act now.

It’s a shame to have to resort to a lawsuit. Perhaps a final stab at a joint demand letter from the city councils in Gilroy and Morgan Hill would do the trick. But if a lawsuit must be filed to get at the facts, then that’s the course that must be taken. South County residents have a right to know what’s being pumped into the air, and San Jose has an obligation to fulfill the promise made. Otherwise, environmental mitigations agreed to as a condition to operate become a joke.

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