Painting by Vi Huntley-Franck
There exists in Juliette, Georgia a monster of a coal plant. The Robert W. Scherer Power plant. It is the most powerful coal-fired plant in North America. It has four units, each producing 930 megawatts. It is also the fourth-largest electric generating plant in the United States. The worst thing about this plant? Twenty million tons per year of Greenhouse Gas emissions. That makes it the #1 emitter in the United States.
The coal used by the plant comes from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and is delivered by trains, some with up to 135 cars. Between two and five trains a day are unloaded, using an air-dump system where they ride over a trestle and are unloaded from the bottom without stopping. This usually takes around ninety minutes. I’ve watched this unloading procedure. It’s efficient but very dirty. There is soot everywhere.
This plant is under Georgia EPD investigation for coal ash pond leeching, drinking water contamination, and air pollution. The two 1001 feet high smokestacks and the two 847 feet high ones send a massive display of pollution high into the sky.
However, the residents of Juliette are getting sick from the coal ash which was never cleaned up properly. It’s polluted their water. Their wells are contaminated. Many of the residents left town, worried about their health and the health of their families.
Georgia Power, owner of the plant, stores their coal wastes freely in the ground, claiming this plan is well within federal and state regulations and poses no risks to public health or drinking water. The company does not use protective liners to prevent toxins from seeping into groundwater.
Coal-fired plants are not only the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, the ash contains arsenic, lead, mercury, and uranium. Yet the EPA treats it like nonhazardous waste. Hexavalent chromium is also present. Residents in the area are complaining about cancers, nosebleeds, and neurological disorders.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Department Of Health claims that there is nothing to worry about, That the wells are safe. I call horseshit on this.
It’s another cover-up. Coal-fired plants need to go away. They’re not only a huge reason for global warming, they’re poisoning people. Killing them outright. They need to be shut down now.
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Supposedly, this plant is scheduled for the shutdown of one of its four units in 2022. However, there is still the problem of what to do with the coal ash. My opinion? Nothing will be done. And what about the other three units? Read more about this at https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/06/largest-coal-plant-us-retire-unit-2022
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More links:
https://www.gem.wiki/Scherer_Steam_Generating_Station
https://gizmodo.com/americas-largest-coal-power-plant-burns-11-million-tons-5850299
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We need to wake up to what is going on around the world. This power plant is not the only one that needs removal. There are many more. More work needs to be done now to completely change over to renewable energy.
Thank you for reading this.
Blaze McRob
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