After nearly three years of back-and-forth between three
different agencies, a second air monitoring station promised to the
South County community when Metcalf Energy Center opened has been
scrapped.
After nearly three years of back-and-forth between three different agencies, a second air monitoring station promised to the South County community when Metcalf Energy Center opened has been scrapped.
There will be no air monitoring station on the south side of the plant, according to San Jose planner Laurel Prevetti.
“We went out to the field, looked around, and basically said none of these (sites) will work,” Prevetti said.
Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokesperson Karen Schkolnick confirmed these statements, adding that the air monitoring station north of the plant was removed from its temporary site at Los Paseos Park two years ago.
This leaves area residents worried about their air quality and emissions coming from the plant with their hands tied, and no new information about air quality being gathered since the plant opened in 2005.
“That is not acceptable,” San Martin Neighborhood Alliance President Sylvia Hamilton said. Canceling plans to build a station should not be an option, she said.
“They should keep looking until they do find a legitimate site that would be able to accurately test air quality,” she said.
The fate of the second air monitoring station, the one to be placed south of the plant, was sealed more than a year ago. Calpine Corporation announced the decision to stop pursuing two air monitoring stations at a quarterly community meeting in February 2007, and met no public outcry, Prevetti said.
Exactly who attended this public meeting, and how well publicized the meeting was, is unknown.
The two air monitoring stations were never required by the California Energy Commission, they were simply a gesture of goodwill offered by the city of San Jose and Calpine, Prevetti said.
Currently, Santa Clara Valley boasts five air monitoring stations, including one in Gilroy and one in San Martin. There are no monitoring stations in Morgan Hill, which is the first town hit by downwind pollution from the plant.
The Metcalf Energy Center, which began operation in June 2005, is a 600-megawatt power plant fueled by natural gas. It uses combined-cycle technology that is 40 percent more efficient than older power plants.
One megawatt can power 750 homes, but the power plant also generates carbon monoxide, particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen, which is why the air quality monitoring stations are needed.
Metcalf conducts on-site monitoring as a requirement, and results are made public four times a year. If any emission exceeds what is permitted, the plant must report it within 24 hours.
