SDRC Undergoes Changes Distributed Wind In
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Volume XXXVII Issue 4 Fall 2010 SDRC Undergoes Changes In This Issue: The South Dakota Resources Coalition has undergone Annual Meeting ......................... 2 changes since this summer. Big Stone Coal Ash .................... 3 Office Move: The SDRC office has moved out of its location Gulf Spill & SD .......................... 3 in the basement of Old Sanctuary in Brookings to the basement Keystone Pipe Defects? .............. 4 of SDRC‘s secretary-treasurer Lawrence Novotny‘ home. Dennis Keystone XL Study Inadequate .... 5 Amendment E Archive ............... 5 Bielfeldt, owner of Old Sanctuary and a Lutheran pastor, has Trautman, Hohn Remembered ... 6 established an Institute of Lutheran Theology. Since space was Organic Farm Conference .......... 7 needed for the Institute, SDRC was asked to vacate. An alternate Mercury in Flu Shots .................. 7 location was offered for the office but commuting distance was a Small-Town Conservation ...... 8 problem for Novotny. After the retirement of SDRC‘s ...plus SDRC raffle winner, and more! administrative assistant Sue Grant in 2009, Novotny has been the only person using the office. With the technology of electronic communications, other SDRC board members have been working out of their homes. Novotny offered the use of his basement for free for the SDRC office. The move was made in mid-July. This location is temporary until SDRC hires an executive director. Then the board will look for office space. Board Retreat: The SDRC board Distributed Wind in South Dakota gathered for a day-long retreat on By Jeanne Koster, recent SDRC board member, Watertown, SD September 18 at The Depot in Madison. During the recent election period, Scott Heidepriem‘s Sharon Chontos of Sage Project campaign issued the following statement: Consultants of Sioux Falls facilitated We could explore the possibility of eliminating the the retreat, which was funded by a grant need for long-transmission lines and utilize wind from the SD Conservation Fund. energy closer to the source (Minnesota and Iowa are The goal of the retreat was to two states that have done this successfully). determine a future direction for SDRC. At last, some common sense on wind. Each board member listed SDRC I live in the Watertown area. Before the Big Stone II coal- strengths, SDRC shortcomings, and the fired power plant scheme so deservedly bit the dust, challenges facing SDRC. The strengths Watertown's municipal utility bought into a notion peddled at of SDRC were the Eco Forum the time by Big Stone II promoters. Watertown, it was said, needed to invest in coal power from Big Stone II to pave the newsletter, the Esther Edie way for wind power development in our state. That wind environmental scholarship, an attractive power development was being held up by lack of long distance webpage, the hosting of informative transmission lines capable of carrying wind electricity from conferences dealing with environmental centralized mega wind farms in SD to lucrative out-of-state issues (the last one was the small scale markets. local energy development conference Big Stone II partners oh-SO-generously promised to build held in Brookings in October 2009), a more transmission than the new coal plant would need. The long history of environmental victories coal plant‘s leftover transmission capacity could get power to in the past, and 501(c)3 non-profit market from big wind farms in our state. (continued on p. 2) status. (continued on p. 2) 2 ECO FORUM Fall 2010 Changes (cont. from p. 1): The board discussed the pros and cons of four different options of restructuring. The vote split between expanding and downsizing SDRC. The final decision was to do further planning and ―retrench‖ in the interim. The board decided to focus on these issues: • Esther Edie environmental scholarship: SDRC Annual Meeting Notes Besides honoring the legacy of SDRC‘s founder, the scholarship provides support for SDRC held its annual business meeting on our future environmental leaders. October 16 at The Depot in Madison. The • SD Resource Award banquet which not only terms of directors Jeanne Koster of Watertown recognizes the dedicated work of concerned and Lois Haertel of Bruce expired. Both South Dakotans but also serves as a directors decided not to renew their 2-year fundraising mechanism for the Edie terms. Koster volunteered to research and write scholarship articles for Eco Forum. Jim Thompson of • Organize a fundraising campaign for the Colman was elected as a new board member scholarship endowment (see separate bio). • Eco Forum: move from a bimonthly Lawrence Novotny of Brookings was re- newsletter to a quarterly newsletter (due to loss elected secretary-treasurer. of paid staff and current dependence on volunteers to do the writing and editing). • Communicate more with our membership through e-mail and the website. A brief telephone survey will be conducted with every membership renewal. • Continue our lobbying presence during the legislative session. • Continue the planning process resulting from the retreat mainly to explore different operating structures and to obtain funding to hire staff. Distributed Wind (cont. from p. 1): The coal existing local distribution networks. Potential, in plant‘s leftover transmission capacity could get other words, for distributed wind power, used power to market from big wind farms in our state. close to the point of generation, without expensive In other words, Watertown would get to eat and wasteful transmission over long distances. expensive coal so out-of-state metros could power South Dakota consumers would benefit up with wind, made more expensive by its long directly in their monthly bills over the long haul; trip on high lines. Shareholders in out-of-state and local economies and employment totals would foreign power development companies could benefit more; grids would be strengthened—all if prosper, meanwhile blessing our state with some we invested in more efficient use of already wind industry jobs and lucrative tower site leases. existing (smartened and beefed up) local But wind power was definitely held hostage, distributive infrastructure, supported by existing pending development of a dirty coal plant and the long-distance highlines as intertie for balancing long-distance transmission lines destined primarily purposes. for coal plant use. BONUS: Electric vehicles can use off-peak New highlines cost megabucks just for windpower generation, substantially lessening our construction, not to mention the inevitable court state's dependence on oil and eventually providing battles. And how many megawatts would be smart-grid-mediated local vehicle-to-grid peaking wasted due to line losses on the long trip from capability. centralized wind farms to market destinations? All Let the FPL's and Iberdrolas do their this winds up on the consumer's electric bill. expensive, outmoded, centralized thing on their Watertown, like many South Dakota towns, is own dime and foist the expensive results on folks surrounded by pretty good wind sites, maybe not in other states who are not as smart and suitable for mega-wind farms but with potential resourceful as South Dakotans can be with proper for smaller clusters of turbines that could use leadership. ECO FORUM Fall 2010 3 Big Stone Coal Ash Polluting Water with Heavy Metals A new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) , in cooperation with Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, identifies the Big Stone power plant among 39 sites nationwide where coal ash is leaching arsenic and other heavy metals into drinking water and surface water. These 39 sites are in addition to 31 sites EIP identified in a February 2010 report and 67 identified by the EPA. What does EIP's report say specifically about Otter Tail's Big Stone facility in northeast South Dakota? Read the full report: “In Harm's 1. There is "Demonstrated damage to groundwater moving Way: Lack of Federal Coal Ash off-site (at northern and eastern property boundaries and Regulations Endangers Americans south toward the Whetstone River)." and Their Environment,” Jeff 2. "21 of 25 monitoring wells report exceedances of Stant, project director & editor, groundwater standards downgradient of coal combustion Environmental Integrity Project, waste disposal units in two aquifers. Arsenic has been up Earthjustice, Sierra Club, to 13 times and lead up to 7 times the maximum 2010.08.26. www.environmentalintegrity.org containment level, boron up to 34 times the lifetime health advisory and sulfate up to 224 times the secondary maximum containment level at 56,000 milligrams per liter (or parts per million) . Despite mounding of groundwater at the property lines, no monitoring of nearby ponds or private wells has occurred." 3. There are 119 wells within 5 miles of the plant, as are the Whetstone River and Big Stone Lake. South Dakota's Department of Environment and Natural Resources doesn't think the pollution comes from Big Stone's coal ash. According to EIP, DENR says the contamination comes from "water softener brine wastes." A rebuttal posted at the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources' website links the groundwater readings to a leaking brine pond that is used to store waste from water-softening treatment. One brine pond leaked before the problem was discovered in 1998, the agency said. "The Environmental Integrity Project is taking the ground water quality data gathered from a brine pond release that occurred more than 20 years ago," the agency's statement says. "The water treatment process used by Big Stone Power has nothing to do with its coal ash disposal practices, and in no way should be used to support any new regulations for coal ash disposal." The agency said the soils around Big Stone also have naturally high levels of sulfate and The Gulf Spill and South Dakota metals. by Chuck Berry, SDRC member, Brookings The report was released just as public hearings Tired of hearing about gulf oil? Me too! across the country began on proposed new rules on There don‘t seem to be any direct connections to coal ash disposal by the U.S.