Surprise! Public Hearing on Power Plant Outfall Lease
In a big surprise, the highly-controversial (and destructive) Morro Bay Power Plant outfall lease is going to be the subject of a special City Council meeting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 5, at the Vets Hall. Public comment will be taken and discussed, then a decision will be made about what to do with the lease — extend or terminate it. Termination will end the plant's life.
Water taken in is used to cool the plant, then dumped into Estero Bay. In the process, the plant has killed many sea creatures in the estuary, including untold numbers of fish and crab larvae, threatening the health and well-being of that body of water. The community and surrounding areas depend on the Morro Bay National Estuary for economic stability, business, and as a tourist draw.
When Duke Energy sought to build a new, larger plant in 2000-05, it was estimated the new plant would kill 17%-33% of the small fish in the Estuary (not counting being used as a proxy for all other "silent partners" — the small, entrainable life stages of clams, worms, etc. and the phytoplankton and zoo plankton of the Bay/Estuary that are too small to count, but make up such an important element of life in the Estuary). Of course that 17%-33% estimate is based on a plant using much more water than the existing one does now, but the amount now used could be significant, given the lack of hard data.
In Brayton Point Power Plant in Massachusetts, a fishery collapse occurred in the estuary there following the start-up of a once-through cooling water system there. Virtually all fish disappeared from it. Could that happen here? No one knows, but many think the risk is not worth it.
The newly-elected Council majority — mayor Jamie Irons, Christine Johnson, and Noah Smukler — who were elected last June 5 in a precedent-setting outcome and are scheduled to be seated as new members on December 10, apparently won't get a say in what happens to the lease, even though they ousted two of the holdover Council members who will be making the decision in a closed discussion of a proposal to extend the lease, which is just a proposal at this point. The first meeting with them as members — and mayor Bill Yates and Council member Carla Borchard removed — is December 11. That leaves Nancy Johnson and George Leage as holdovers with two years left on their terms.
Whether the new Council could terminate the lease after it is seated and, in effect, close the plant has been discussed. (See: SCJ - Power Plant) But Schultz claims it could not, even though all the existing Council would be doing is acting on a proposal and presumably the new Council has the authority to modify any proposal once in power. That could be a topic of debate on December 5, if the new Council members object to how the discussion has been framed — and what Schultz is proposing and the old Council will be acting on. Note that Yates and Borchard are going to participate in the decision even though they have been replaced and have only five days left to serve after December 5.
Morro Bay voters rejected them at the June 5 primary, but they get to help make a critical decision. Holdovers Johnson and Leage are well-known plant supporters. How Irons, Johnson, and Smukler would vote if the issue of the lease were placed before them is unclear, but there is no indication they are leaning toward extending the lease.
The Council and Schultz met in private on Thursday, November 29, to try to decide what to do about the lease that has expired. But, Schultz says,the lease has a holdover clause that would allow Dynegy to continue to possess and operate the plant property under a subsequent month-to-month lease. (The current lease is for the outfall and not for operation of the plant property.) It is not a subsequent lease, but just a continuance of the lease from month to month on the same terms and conditions as the expired lease, he says.
The plant needs an outfall lease to operate because it has no other means to cool the plant.
There also are legal questions pending about operation of the plant and, presumably, about the lease. A key example is Dynegy's failure to comply with the new (adopted last year) once-through cooling policy for the state's 19 coastal power plants, including Morro Bay's, which requires a phase-out of the use of water from estuaries, bays, and the ocean and a plan for doing that. Dynegy filed a plan for Morro Bay to begin to accomplish that by 2015, but a state agency found it unacceptable because it was so vague. No acceptable one has been submitted by Dynegy since then.
The 60-year-old plant has been a big source of income for the city. Under the current outfall lease, it has paid Morro Bay an estimated $750,000 per year. Over the years, the city has earned many millions from the lease and franchise fees.
