Peaking power plant opponents wired to file suit

By Mike Cetera
STAFF WRITER

   WARRENVILLE -- Urging residents to band together for a long struggle, leaders of a group fighting a proposed peak-usage power plant on Aurora's Northeast Side said Wednesday night a legal fight is imminent.

   "It's a bad issue," Aurora resident Michael Dunker said. "It's going to have to go to the courts, and it's going to get expensive."

   The residents said they plan to incorporate their group, Citizens Against Power Plants in Residential Areas, and began soliciting donations during a community meeting at Cafe 59 in Warrenville.

   Julie Parker, an attorney for CAPPRA, said she could seek to block further action on the plan within a week.

   "There's nothing stopping us from doing this, and nothing will," she said.

   More than 100 people attended the meeting, representing Aurora, Warrenville, West Chicago and various unincorporated areas surrounding the proposed plant.

   The group of protesters has grown steadily as CAPPRA members canvass neighborhoods to distribute flyers warning of the proposed plant. The opposition also includes elected officials from some nearby municipalities.

   Houston-based Reliant Energy wants to build an 870-megawatt peaking power plant on 103 acres in the Butterfield Center for Business & Industry.

   CAPPRA members say -- and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency air-permit records show -- the plant's turbines could produce as many as 950-megawatts of electricity.

   Reliant has an option to buy land near the southeast corner of Butterfield and Eola roads.

   The company would build 10 natural-gas-fired turbines on 30 acres. It has pledged to leave the remaining part of the property untouched, with possible uses including park district or city ball fields, as well as natural open space.

   Opponents contend the plant will hurt property values and damage their health and the surrounding environment through carbon dioxide and other gas emissions.

   They urged state regulatory agencies to define rules for such peaker facilities, which CAPPRA members contend produce massive amounts of pollution in the short time during the year in which they operate.

   Opponents say such plants skirt regulation because they fall slightly under yearly maximum allowed emissions, even though they run less than 25 percent of the year.

   Even so, the IEPA has said peaker plants do not create significant air-quality problems.

   CAPPRA members said they're concerned about the proposed facility's water usage, the city's position on the property's zoning and a reluctance on the part of many city officials to investigate further.

   "I just don't like being pushed around, and I feel like that's what they're doing to us," CAPPRA treasurer Steve Arrigo said.

   City officials, meanwhile, have begun referring residents' questions about the plant to the Law Department following a March 6 letter from Parker, in which she wrote: "Individuals can incur personal liability for their actions." Parker is a Warrenville resident and a CAPPRA member.

   "Their mayor is afraid to come here and face us? How interesting," Parker said Wednesday night. "They're running scared, and you know what? I'm glad, because they should be."

   The plan has bounced between committees since December, first as city staff questioned the company's plan and then later, as residents became aware of Reliant's proposal and raised their own concerns.

   Ultimately, city officials said they could not forbid the company from building on the site because the power plant fit into the property's zoning definition. To deny approval of Reliant's site plan would leave the city open to litigation, Mayor David Stover said.

   The Planning and Development Committee for the second time approved the plan Feb. 24, following an appeal by First Ward Alderman Tess Wackerlin and Alderman at-large Robert O'Connor.

   Last week, O'Connor again appealed the committee decision.

   Tuesday, Stover rejected the appeal on the grounds it was not legally valid, and O'Connor promised to challenge the ruling during next week's City Council meeting. It would require a majority vote of the council to overturn the ruling.

   Plant construction still needs IEPA approval. The agency will host a public forum on April 3 at Indian Plains Elementary School before issuing a permit.

03/09/2000