On Oct. 22, the Swan Point Property Owners Association lost their appeal to the Public Service Commission regarding Mirant Mid-Atlantic’s air-quality improvement project at its Morgantown Power Generating Station. The Commission did not agree that vapor plume from wet-scrubbers at Morgantown would be as unsightly or economically detrimental to the area as Swan Point insisted it would.
The Charles County Commissioners refusal to participate in the project hearing process was cited in PSC Order No. 81667 as part of the PSC’s reason for denying the appeal. The PSC assumed that the commissioners would have been involved if the wet-scrubber project posed an actual threat to the county.
Late this autumn, the State issued construction permits for the Morgantown projects on condition that a contract with Charles County for treated effluent (wastewater) usage rights and a pipeline project would be in place by Jan. 1. Mirant Mid-Atlantic, LLC must use treated effluent in the forthcoming Morgantown wet-scrubbers within 4 years after they go on-line. Mirant had previously expressed a desire to begin using the effluent within one year after the installation of the wet-scrubbers.
However, the company recently asked the State for an extension of contract deadline. Mirant wants another two months to complete the negotiations, hoping to have everything in place by March 1, 2008.
Chuck Beall, the County Acting Director of Planning and Growth Management, told The Bay Net that the county has been negotiating with Mirant for several months. He expects to have a contract in place by the end of January 2008, if not sooner.
“We are getting close to being in a position to execute a [formal] agreement,” Beall said. “We’re pretty much in agreement on all the principles. Now the attorneys just have to iron out the wording.”
The final agreement will consist of two contracts. The first defines the nature of the effluent sale from the Town of La Plata to Charles County. The second defines Mirant’s purchase of the effluent from the county and the company’s infrastructure arrangements to pipe the water to Morgantown. Although reference is somewhat unclear, Mirant’s letter seems to state that the agreement between the County and La Plata is “nearly complete”.
However, La Plata Town Manager, Daniel Mears told The Bay Net, “The Town will soon meet with the County to put together an agreement between the two parties. There has not been an agreement drafted to date.”
According to Mears, La Plata’s last progress on the project occurred last October when, “we verified the quality of the effluent provided by the Town and its new waste water treatment plant would be sufficient for the standards needed by Mirant”.
.
–>
