Newly formed Healthy Dubois County, Inc. holds first press conference
The Concerned Citizens has organized under the name Healthy Dubois County, Inc. a non-profit organization that just formed last week.
Pastor Chris Breedlove stated that the group opposing the power plant conversion has grown and they felt there was a need to organize. Chairperson of the new organization is Dr. Norma Kreilein. Other members of the board include: Vice chair, Rock Emmert; treasurer, Kris Lasher; secretary, Chelsea Ruxer; board members, Bob Alles, Alec Kalla, and Christopher Breedlove.
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One of the organizations first acts was to call a press conference in response to the public forum and the recent press conference.
Alec Kalla attacked the numbers released by the city in Monday’s press conference. The city quoted the toxins released by Rockport’s power plant as 3.5 million pounds per year and compared this to the 25 tons that is permitted with the Jasper Clean Energy Center. Kalla stated this is misleading in that this is the total pollution from the 2600 mWatt Rockport Power Plant.
According to Kalla comparing the two power plants pollution amounts is an apples to oranges comparison. The true comparison should be the 1750 tons of the 2500 mWatt power plant to the 25 tons of the 75 Mwatt proposed power plant for Jasper.
The city compared the amount of fine particles being released by the proposed power plant to 50 fireplaces burning year round or 5-8 semi’s driving around Dubois County continuously. Healthy Dubois County stated that this wasn’t an accurate representation based on the fact the smoke stacks are stationary and all of the pollution released will be in the immediate area around the plant, not spread throughout the county as the example shows.
The group also cited a study released by USA Today in 2008 called “The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and American Schools”. The study measured toxic chemicals present in and around 127,800 public and private schools throughout the country in 2005. According to the study the Tenth Street School in Jasper and Ferdinand Elementary are in the top 5th percentile of schools with high amounts of toxins. Holy Family is in the 4th percentile.
Besides pollutants such as heavy metals, the most dangerous particles emitted by combustion are particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter. These particles impact many aspects of an individual’s health. They have been cited as causing chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia.
In a study conducted by the Abt Associates in 2010, the Jasper Power Plant was examined to quantify the costs associated with health problems related to operation of the coal fired power plant. The study assigned a cost to each death attributed to health complications related to the power plant. Each death was assigned a value of $7.3 million dollars. Costs associated with the treatment of health issues ranged from $52 for a minor occurrence to $440,000 to a chronic disease.
Dr. Norma Kreilein pointed out that the city is not taking these costs into account when it releases the potential windfall of income generated by taxes, royalties, and lease payments. The city is not considering the potential windfall of costs associated with the direct impact of the health of the citizens of the community.
