Water Deal for Texas Coal Plant Postponed

[sonias]

Texas Tribune 6/15/11
Water Deal for Texas Coal Plant Postponed

Updated 2:30 p.m.

In a victory for environmental groups, the LCRA board decided to delay the decision on whether to grant a large water contract to the proposed White Stallion coal plant. The board heard testimony all morning, much of it from people living in the Colorado River basin who cited concerns about water availability and air pollution, and urged further study of the proposed 40-year contract. White Stallion's chief operating officer, Randy Bird, testified that the water contract was one of two pieces critical to getting more permanent financing for the plant. (The other piece is the air permit, which also recently encountered a hitch.) The board will consider the issue again on Aug. 10. The decision to delay was unanimous, although one board member was out of town.

**
A day after choosing a new general manager, the board of the Lower Colorado River Authority, the major water supplier for Central Texas, is meeting today to decide whether to grant a water contract to a proposed coal plant near Bay City.

Officials at the White Stallion Energy Center, the proposed $2.5 billion coal plant, could pay the LCRA $55 million to build a new reservoir to supply it — without, White Stallion officials say, harming the Highland Lakes, the reservoirs up the Colorado River whose levels have been dropping in the recent drought.

Woot!!! Water for people not power plants!!!

:toast:

[sonias]

1. LCRA delays water for coal plant decision until August

AAS 6/15/11

LCRA delays water for coal plant decision until August

The board of the Lower Colorado River Authority decided today to table a contract that would send at least 8.3 billion gallons of water a year to a proposed coal-fired power plant near the Gulf Coast.

The White Stallion Energy Center, which would cost at least $2.5 billion, would be built in Matagorda County, just south of Bay City, and would burn enough coal and petroleum coke to generate electricity to supply 650,000 homes.

The decision to table a decision until Aug. 10 came after a parade of comments from the public on Wednesday, nearly all of them opposed to the plant.

“Water is a limited resource, and I don’t want you guys being careless with it,” said Sean Wicks, a 19-year-old Austinite and intern with Sierra Club. “I will live through the whole effects of this contract, and they’ll probably be negative effects."

:kick:

[sonias]

2. Groups oppose WSEC water contract

Bay City Tribune 6/15/11

Groups oppose WSEC water contract

Early this week local farmers, ranchers and concerned citizens joined with the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club to oppose White Stallion Energy Center’s proposed Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) firm water contract despite LCRA’s claims that there is enough water to go around.

LCRA staff announced last week they would propose a 40-year firm water contract for White Stallion to receive 24,500 acre-feet of water annually while paying $55 million for the creation of a lower basin 5,000 acre-feet reservoir, improving Bay City’s pumping station and paying for a study to develop new water in the future.

(snip)
A study paid for by the Sierra Club suggests that there isn’t enough firm water available from the combined yield of Lakes Buchanan and Travis.

A report released by Dr. Lauren Ross of Glenrose Engineering finds that firm yield water from the lakes is 535, 812 acre-feet per year; and the firm water commitments are 514,028 acre-feet per year leaving 21,784 available.

:kick:

[sonias]

3. Sierra Club Report

Sierra Club Report link
Proposed White Stallion Coal-Fired Power Plant Water Demands and the Highland Lakes Water Supply
June 2011

Conclusions

(snip)
Operation of the proposed coal-fired White Stallion power plant will require a significantly large and consistent water supply even during drought conditions. This type of demand is appropriately met by LCRA using a firm water contract, The current balance between the Combined Firm Yield from the Highland Lakes and existing firm water commitments is only 21,784 acre-feet per year available, less than the 25,000 acre-feet per year required to supply the water demand of the proposed power plant. Provision of the water would be demanded by White Stallion during drought conditions would significantly lower water storage in Lakes Buchanan and Travis. The difference in lake-stored water would curtail and interrupt water releases for irrigated agriculture, fish habitat, effulent dilution, recreation and maintenance of the Matagorda Bay esturies.

:kick:

[sonias]

4. Texas Sierra Club Press Release

Texas Sierra Club Press Release 6/15/11

Sierra Club Releases Report showing Not Enough LCRA Water for Proposed White Stallion Coal Plant

June 13, 2011

“Proposed White Stallion Coal-Fired Power Plant Water Demands and the Highland Lakes Water Supply” Report

FOR RELEASE: Wednesday, June 15, 2011
CONTACT: Lydia Avila, Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign, 626-506-9651
Ryan Rittenhouse, Public Citizen Texas, 440-796-9695
Citizens Question Water for Coal Plant

Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and No Coal Coalition call on LCRA Board to Deny Water Contract to White Stallion Coal Plant

(Austin) The Sierra Club, Public Citizen, the No Coal Coalition and Lower Colorado River Ranchers today urge members of the Board of Directors of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) to vote at their meeting this morning to deny a water contract requested by the proposed White Stallion coal plant.

“We have to face the facts- there simply isn't enough water in the Colorado river to cool these old style power plants,” said Ryan Rittenhouse with Public Citizen. “We're facing the worst drought in 50 years and maybe in history and yet LCRA staff has their head in the sand and is recommending approval of this contract when all indications show that there isn't enough water to go around. We call upon the Board to exercise judgment and just say ‘No’ when the staff is taking a wrong turn.”

Members of Sierra Club, Public Citizen, the No Coal Coalition, other environmental groups and many residents from both the Highland Lakes and Matagorda and Wharton County ends of the LCRA’s managed water basin are attending the meeting at the LCRA headquarters in Austin this morning – some with signs outside. Many came to make public comments at the microphone.

“Do we really want the coal industry to trump agricultural water needs and the environment that sustains life?” said Susan Dancer, wildlife rehabilitator and owner of Matagorda County Texas Blessings Ranch. “During this drought, we are especially in need of water to irrigate our human and livestock food crops as well as our hay production. We need enough freshwater inflow into Matagorda Bay and estuaries to provide the brackish water necessary for many of our fish and shellfish species to reproduce. The LCRA Board must consider the hidden costs of such a facility as White Stallion. Taking our water for an un-needed coal plant is one of the ways White Stallion would cripple the existing economy and damage agriculture and the environment. We ask the LCRA board to manage our water wisely, refuse this contract today, or wait to consider the decision more carefully.”

The Sierra Club released a report this week, “Proposed White Stallion Coal-Fired Power Plant Water Demands and the Highland Lakes Water Supply”.

The report’s author Dr. Lauren Ross said, “According to the water management plan, there is not enough water available for the White Stallion request. Committing water to this proposed coal plant would compromise agricultural and environmental flows during the most severe historical drought of record.”

At the LCRA’s Water Management Committee meeting last night, members of the LCRA board commented that they had only been updated yesterday morning, they hadn’t had time to finish reading a new proposed contract, and that they wanted the board to take the time to inform citizens on the details.

Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign organizer, Lydia Avila attended both the meeting last night and today’s Board meeting.

“The Board must deny this permit today or at the very least, slow down and reconsider such a potentially damaging decision. The evidence against this proposal is in and people, including the LCRA Board of Directors deserve to know more. The proposed White Stallion coal plant would displace other water users at a time when extreme drought means we must carefully conserve water for the most important uses,” said Lydia Avila with Sierra Club. “We don’t need new coal plants, including this one. We already have enough electricity generation on the grid and we simply can’t afford to burn away our precious water in coal steam. Texas is are already working on phasing out existing coal plants in favor of clean, water-wise renewable energy such as wind and solar power. ”

:kick:

[sonias]

5. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect Highland Lake Water

Austin Chronicle 6/15/11

Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect Highland Lake Water
(snip)
As if the construction of a coal power plant by an energy corporation named White Stallion wasn't ironic enough, the company behind the project is asking the Lower Colorado River Authority for a enormous water usage permit during the worst drought in 50 years. However, the LCRA board voted this morning to delay a decision until early August.

A permit from the LCRA is one of the final pieces that White Stallion Energy Center LLC would need to begin building their coal-burning plant outside of Bay City, some 80 miles southwest of Houston. Such permits are particularly useful in courting investors and future funding to bring these types of projects into existence.

The whole issue trickles its way back to Travis County as the LCRA is the authority over all water supplies in Central Texas, holding control of our two local variable-level lakes, Travis and Buchanan (the other four lakes are kept at fixed levels, and therefore aren't affected by increased usage).

:kick:

[sonias]

6. Dwindling Lakes, Growing Water Demand in Central

Texas Tribune 6/19/11

Dwindling Lakes, Growing Water Demand in Central

On the cliffs surrounding Central Texas’ large Lake Buchanan, a white ring extends some 13 feet above the shoreline, marking where the water reaches when the lake is full. At nearby Lake Travis, staircases that once led to the water’s edge now end well above it.

These two lakes serve as key water sources for dozens of cities and hundreds of farmers, as well as for several power plants. With Texas gripped by drought, water levels have fallen dramatically. Combined, the two lakes now hold 28 percent less water than their long-term average.

“This is scary,” said Janet Caylor, who owns two marinas on Lake Travis, the larger of the two lakes, and has had to move her docks as lake levels drop.

The current drought, drier than any other October-through-May stretch in Texas history, has heightened the stakes in an already contentious long-term planning battle over water from these lakes, which feed the lower Colorado River as it runs southeast to the Gulf of Mexico. It has pitted fast-growing cities like Austin, which depend on the water for drinking and recreation, against rice farmers near the Gulf, who need vast amounts of water for irrigation. Lakeside residents and business owners like Caylor, frustrated by dropping water levels, want to keep the lakes as full as possible.

Rain, please, please let it rain!

:kick:

[white cloud]

7. got to save that water for

So haliburton has 5 to 7 million to frac each wells.