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Comment: Conservation a better option than CPS coal plant
Erin Zayko
Special to the Express-News
01/01/2005 - City Public Service is about to spend $1 billion to build a new coal plant. In addition, the plant will burn $100 million in fuel each year for the next 30 years to fire its boilers. That adds up to $4 billion.
Not only will this plant cost a lot of money, it will unnecessarily emit a variety of harmful contaminants into our skies.
CPS says it is building one of the cleanest plants in the country while also reducing emissions at its existing coal plants, but let's look carefully at the facts.
The proposed plant would add a lot of pollution to our atmosphere: more than 6 million tons of carbon dioxide; 140 pounds of brain-damaging mercury; particles that trigger asthma and heart attacks; silica, which causes black lung disease; hydrochloric acid; sulfur dioxide; and nitrogen oxide. This pollution is dangerous and will affect citizens' health and the climate for the 30 to 50 years this plant is expected to run.
Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming. Almost every scientist who studies the problem agrees that the climate is changing and that the results will be bad for public health.
The impacts on Central Texas will be severe. We'll see more heat waves and droughts like we experienced in the late '90s, followed by torrential rains and floods. Far-fetched? Ask the flood control experts. They'll tell you we've had two 500-year floods and a 250-year flood in the past six years.
Almost every other industrialized country has agreed to limit their emissions of carbon dioxide. As a result, those limitations are now international law. Without U.S. compliance, trade sanctions may kick in, and we may end up paying $25 per ton for carbon emissions. Applied to all carbon dioxide emissions from this plant, this would add another $200 million a year to the cost of operating the facility.
Mercury causes brain damage. Less than one teaspoon of mercury can contaminate a 20-acre lake. The proposed plant would add up to 140 pounds of mercury to the air each year. If a pregnant woman eats mercury-contaminated fish, her child may suffer permanent brain damage, learning disabilities or attention deficits.
In economic terms, that means more taxes paid by the average citizen for programs for children with special needs. CPS says fish in the lake near the existing coal plants aren't contaminated, but fish in the San Antonio River have mercury levels that exceed EPA guidelines.
Silica causes black lung disease, and the proposed plant would emit five times more silica than the state standard, or effective screening level. Fine-particle pollution is known to trigger asthma and heart attacks. This plant would also expose people to levels of hydrochloric acid gas that exceed the state's effective screening level.
CPS will tell you these emissions would only exceed safe limits for a few hours each year, but such exposure can have serious health impacts.
This coal plant isn't needed. An internal CPS study has found that conservation measures could save 1.6 times more energy than this polluting plant will produce. Some energy conservation methods include tightening leaks, high performance windows and new high-tech lighting, appliances and air conditioners that use a third of the energy consumed by the systems most of us have in our homes today.
The choice that faces the city is simple. Would we be better off investing $1 billion into a polluting coal plant or investing that same money (or less) in making our homes and apartments cooler while reducing our electric bills?
That $1 billion divided by the 500,000 houses and apartments in the city is about $2,000 per home. That's a lot of efficiency.
Some say that San Antonians will never grasp energy conservation, but that's what they used to say about water conservation. San Antonio reduced water use by 30 percent and avoided spending billions of dollars to build an unneeded reservoir.
We don't need this plant. It will impact our health, and it will cost far more than energy efficiency.
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Erin Zayko is a member of Smart Growth San Antonio.
Lung or Respiratory Disease:
What do the lungs do?
The main function of the lungs is (rapid) gas exchange. This is accomplished by a well-coordinated interaction of the lungs with the central nervous system, the diaphragm and chest wall musculature, and the circulatory system.
Gas exchange occurs in the alveolus where the thin laminar blood flow and inspired air are separated only by a thin tissue layer. Gas exchange takes 0.25 seconds or 1/3 of the total transit time of a red cell. The entire blood volume of the body passes through the lungs each minute in the resting state, that is 5 liters per minute. The total surface area of the lung is about 80 meters square, equivalent to the size of a tennis court.
Only about 10% of the lung is occupied by solid tissue, whereas the remainder is filled with air and blood. Supporting structures of the lung must be delicate to allow gas exchange, yet strong enough to maintain architectural integrity, that is sustain alveolar structure. The functional structure of the lung can be divided into (1) the conducting airways (dead air space), and (2) the gas exchange portions. The two plumbing systems are: airways for ventilation, and the circulatory system for perfusion. Both are under low pressure.
Lung conditions and terms:
Respiratory infection - Can be caused by anything from the rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, and multiple other viruses. Mild cases are known as the common cold, severe cases become Pneumonia, and can be life threatening.
Obstructive pulmonary disease:
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), also called chronic obstructive lung disease, is a term that is used for two closely related diseases of the respiratory system: chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In many patients these diseases occur together, although there may be more symptoms of one than the other. Most patients with these diseases have a long history of heavy cigarette smoking.
Influenza:
Commonly called "the flu," is caused by the influenza virus, which infects the respiratory tract. The virus generally spreads from person-to-person when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Compared with other respiratory infections like the common cold, the flu can cause severe illness and lead to serious, and life-threatening complications in all age groups.
Typical flu symptoms include fever, dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, muscle aches, and extreme fatigue. Children may experience gastrointestinal problems like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea but such symptoms are not common in adults. Although the term "stomach flu" is sometimes used to describe gastrointestinal illnesses, this is caused
by other organisms and is not related to “true” flu.
Sarcoidosis:
Also known as Sarcoid or Boeck's disease, is a multi-system auto-immune disease. It is a systemic granulomatous disease especially involving the lungs with resulting fibrosis but can also effect skin, liver, spleen, eyes, bones, brain, parotid glands and other soft tissue organs. Sarcoidosis is not contagious, it's onset may appear without any symptoms and it can cause lifelong ailments. At this time there is no cause or cure for sarcoidosis.
Pulmonary fibrosis:
Shortness of breath is the main symptom possibly first appearing during exercise. The condition then may progress to the point where any exertion is impossible. If the disease progresses, the person may be short of breath even at rest. This happens because scarring occurs in the tissue between the air sacs, with the lung becoming stiff.
Pulmonary hypertension:
A rare and incurable disease. It most often strikes young women in the prime of their lives, causing high blood pressure in the lungs, which produces progressive breathlessness and ultimately death.
Pulmonary embolism:
An obstruction of a blood vessel in the lungs, usually due to a blood clot, which blocks a coronary artery. Symptoms include chest pain, chest wall tenderness, back pain, shoulder pain, upper abdominal pain, syncope, hemoptysis, shortness of breath, painful respiration or new onset of wheezing.
Dyspnea:
Shortness of breath, or dyspnea, is a feeling of difficult or labored breathing that is out of proportion to the level of physical activity. It is a symptom of a variety of different diseases or disorders and may be either acute or chronic. It results from a combination of impulses relayed to the brain from nerve endings in the lungs, rib cage, chest muscles, or diaphragm, combined with the patient's perception and interpretation of
the sensation. Patients can feel an unpleasant shortness of breath, increased tiredness in the chest muscles, a panicky feeling of being smothered, or tightness and cramping in the chest wall.
Sources:
Cornell University Medical College
Sarcoidosis Online Sites
American Lung Association
Pulmonary Hypertension Association eMedicine
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts
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