Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion

Did you know that you and your family are within reach of toxic emissions that come from the Morro Bay Power Plant–that they may have long lifetimes in the atmosphere and travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers, according to a state agency?

Yes, the existing plant has been running very little for the past three or four years, but did you know that the owners are still intent on building a brand new–and LARGER–plant that would INCREASE potentially-lethal (source: EPA) emissions coming from its smokestacks?

The most dangerous of the emissions is particulate matter (PM), fine particles “that are easily inhaled into the lungs,” EPA says, which scientific studies have linked to “significant health problems,” including decreased lung function, aggravated asthma, chronic bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease. There is no known safe level of PM.

Just since Duke Energy unveiled plans in 1999 to build a new plant, a tremendous amount of scientific knowledge about PM has emerged. For example, a National Morbidity Mortality and Air Pollution study concluded that “even relatively low levels of the miniscule air pollutant known as particulates raise the risk of death and serious illness,” as reported in USA Today.

We can stop this threat to public health–and what do you think this specter of harmful air quality will do to our property values?–by speaking out, and this is the perfect time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a public hearing on a proposed federal air quality permit for a new plant on Tuesday, Oct. 24, between 6 and 9 p.m. in the Veterans Memorial Hall, 209 Surf St., Morro Bay.

Let’s join together by crowding the meeting to demonstrate our alarm, speaking or filing comments with EPA and demanding that strict controls be placed on emissions from the plant. The permit would actually allow more PM than the old plant did when running at capacity!

Read specific objections to the permit by the Coastal Alliance on Plant Expansion (CAPE) and talking points for the hearing along with background information on the plant’s emissions at CAPE’s new website, www.morrobaypowerplant.org. The permit and an EPA report on it are at http://www.epa.gov/region9/air/permit/r9-permits-issued.html. The facts about PM are at http://www.epa.gov/oar/particlepollution/fastfacts.html.

Let’s unite to stop the toxic pollution of the air we breathe NOW.