STATE OF FLORIDA
DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
IN RE: GAINESVILLE RENEWABLE )
ENERGY CENTER, LLC ) Case No. 09-6641EPP
)
RECOMMENDED ORDER
Robert E. Meale, Administrative Law Judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings, conducted a certification hearing in this case in Gainesville, Florida, on August 23-26, 2010.
APPEARANCES
For Applicant Gainesville Renewable Energy Center, LLC:
David S. Dee
John T. LaVia, III
Young van Assenderp, P.A.
225 South Adams Street, Suite 200 Tallahassee, Florida 32301
For Department of Environmental Protection:
Toni L. Sturtevant Assistant General Counsel
Department of Environmental Protection 3900 Commonwealth Boulevard, M.S. 35
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000 For Intervenor Thomas Bussing:
Mick G. Harrison Qualified Representative The Caldwell Eco Center
323 South Walnut Street Bloomington, Indiana 47401
STATEMENT OF THE ISSUE
The issue in this case is whether the Siting Board should grant a site certification to Gainesville Regional Energy Center, LLC (GREC) for the construction and operation of a 100-megawatt (MW) biomass-fired electrical power plant in Gainesville, Florida, pursuant to Sections 403.501 through 403.518, Florida Statutes.
PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
On November 30, 2009, GREC filed with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) a site certification application (Application). The Application requests certification of the construction and operation of an electrical power plant to be located at the Deerhaven Generating Station (Deerhaven) of Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU). The Application states that the power plant, which will produce 100 megawatts (MW), net, of electricity, will be fueled by biomass--mostly, chipped and ground wood.
On September 18, 2009, GREC filed with the Public Service Commission (PSC) a Petition to Determine Need for the Project. On June 28, 2010, the PSC entered a final order determining a need for the project. The final order is on appeal.
On December 7, 2009, DEP transmitted the file to the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH). By Notice of
Hearing issued December 9, 2009, the Administrative Law Judge scheduled the final hearing for August 23-27, 2010.
On January 11, 2010, DEP issued a Determination that Application is Incomplete. The next day, GREC filed its response, which stated that it would supply the additional information sought by DEP. In February 2010, GREC filed its Completeness Responses and Amendment to Application. On March 4, 2010, DEP issued a Determination that Application is Complete.
On July 12, 2010, DEP issued its Project Analysis Report, which incorporates the comments of reviewing agencies. The Project Analysis Report recommends certification of the project, subject to various conditions.
On July 26, 2010, Thomas Bussing filed a Motion to Intervene. The next day, the Administrative Law Judge entered an Order Granting Intervention.
On August 4, 2010, Intervenor Thomas Bussing (Intervenor) filed his Motion for Approval of Mick G. Harrison, Esq., as His Qualified Representative and an affidavit from Mr. Harrison in support of the motion. On August 10, 2010, the Administrative Law Judge entered an Order Accepting Qualified Representative.
On August 16, 2010, the parties filed a Prehearing Stipulation for Certification Hearing. Among other things, the
prehearing stipulation contains Intervenor's statement of the issues, which are:
Violations related to dioxin-like compounds emissions;
Violations related to Best Available Control Technology for NOx (nitrogen oxides) and SO2 (sulphur dioxide);
Violations related to Maximum Available Control Technology for Hazardous Air Pollutants;
Violations related to non-stack unconfined (fugitive) emissions of particulate matter (PM), particulate matter not greater than ten microns (PM10), particulate matter not greater than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), and non-particles, aerosols, and ultra-fine particles;
Violations related to fires;
Violations related to endangered, threatened, and special-concern species; and
Violations related to adverse financial impacts on the public interest and whether the need for the GREC facility is outweighed by harmful environmental consequences.
On August 16, 2010, GREC filed a Motion in Limine, which contends that Intervenor had raised issues that were exclusively within the jurisdiction of the PSC, pursuant to Section 403.519, Florida Statutes, which vests the need determination exclusively in the PSC. The Administrative Law Judge struck Issue 7, except for whether the need for the GREC facility is outweighed by harmful environmental consequences.
On August 18, 2010, DEP filed a Motion in Limine, which contends that Intervenor had raised issues that are not within the jurisdiction of the Siting Board. Simultaneous with the
filing of the Application for site certification, GREC filed with DEP an application for an air construction permit for the same facility. DEP transmitted the air construction permit case to DOAH on August 9, 2010, and it bears DOAH Case No. 10-7281.
In its Motion in Limine, DEP conceded that air quality impacts are "an important matter" for the Siting Board to consider in effecting a balance between the need for the power plant and its environmental impact. However, DEP observed that the air construction permit is exclusively within the jurisdiction of DEP, pursuant to Sections 403.509(5) and 403.511(1), Florida Statutes. The Administrative Law Judge denied DEP's motion, but ruled that "violations" of the requirements of an air construction permit program would not necessarily result in the denial of certification. The effect of the ruling was to allow all parties to produce evidence, which may be more germane to the air construction permit case, to address the more general issue of air impacts.
At the hearing, GREC called six witnesses and introduced into evidence GREC Exhibits 1-7, 17-18, 20-21, 23-25, 27-28, 30,
33-34, 35C, 35G, 35H, 35U, 35V, 35X, 42, 50-51, 53, 55-57, and
DEP called no witnesses and introduced no exhibits into evidence. Intervenor called five witnesses and introduced into evidence Intervenor Exhibits 15-17, 28, 33, and 35-36.
Additionally, pursuant to Section 403.508(4)(b), Florida Statutes, 28 members of the public presented oral communications, in addition to the written communications that are part of this record. Pursuant to this statute, prior to receiving the comments, the Administrative Law Judge advised the parties that he would consider such communications, so all parties would have an opportunity to cross-examine, challenge, or rebut such communications. However, the Administrative Law Judge allowed members of the public not wishing to be subjected to cross-examination to state this desire at the start of their statement, and the Administrative Law Judge would not allow cross-examination of such persons. No person elected this option.
The court reporter filed the transcript on August 30, 2010. DEP and GREC filed proposed recommended orders on September 10, 2010.
FINDINGS OF FACT
Introduction
On November 30, 2009, GREC filed with DEP an Application for the construction and operation of a net 100 MW (gross 116 MW), biomass-fired electrical power plant at GRU's Deerhaven power plant complex. GREC seeks to place the biomass plant in service on or before December 31, 2013, which is the
deadline for eligibility for a federal renewable-energy grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
GREC is a subsidiary of American Renewables, LLC, which develops, builds, and operates renewable-energy facilities. American Renewables, LLC, is jointly owned by affiliates of three corporations that develop, operate, invest, and manage various types of energy projects. American Renewables, LLC, recently obtained permits for a similar biomass plant, also of
100 MW net, in Nacogdoches, Texas. This plant, which is expected to begin commercial operation in late 2012, has a power purchasing agreement with Austin Energy, a municipal utility owned by the City of Austin. American Renewables, LLC, recently sold the Nacogdoches plant to a subsidiary of Southern Company.
GRU is a municipal utility of the City of Gainesville.
GRU owns and operates a power generation, transmission, and distribution system to serve its 93,000 customers and its wholesale customers, which include the City of Alachua and Clay Electrical Cooperative, Inc. In addition to owning a 1.4- percent share of the Progress Energy Florida Crystal River Unit Three, GRU owns three power supply facilities, which generate a summer net capacity of 608 MW. Of these, the largest is Deerhaven, which generates 440 MW net.
A former mayor of the City of Gainesville, Intervenor served on the utility committee of the City Commission and
participated in utility planning for GRU. Intervenor lives less than 10 miles from the Deerhaven site and regularly walks outdoors, works in his yard, and bicycles in the area. He enjoys canoeing on local waterways and observing wildlife, such as eagles, hawks, and owls. Identifying himself as a "locavore," Intervenor favors locally grown food.
Application
According to the Application, the GREC site consists of
131 acres within the Deerhaven site in northwest Gainesville and north central Alachua County--eight miles from downtown Gainesville to the southeast and seven miles from downtown Alachua to the northwest. The Deerhaven site is within a 1146- acre parcel owned by the City of Gainesville.
The Deerhaven site includes several units. Unit 1 generates 88 MW by way of a natural gas or oil-fired steam unit. Unit 2, which was certified in 1978, generates 235 MW (sometimes described as 250 MW) by way of a pulverized coal-fired unit. Unit 3 generates 76 MW by way of a natural gas or oil-fired, simple-cycle combustion turbine unit. Deerhaven also includes two 19-MW, simple-cycle combustion turbine units. If the Siting Board issues a certificate for the GREC site, GRU would not be required to decertify any part of its site; instead, GRU's certificate would be modified to reflect the certification issued to GREC.
The GREC site abuts the northwest boundary of the GRU's existing generating facilities at Deerhaven. The GRU facilities immediately east of the GREC site are an ash landfill, brine landfill, and large stormwater management pond. Abutting these facilities to the east are ash settling ponds and a wastewater treatment sludge disposal cell, and, abutting these facilities farther to the east, is a large coal pile. A spur of the CSX rail line, which is used for coal deliveries to Deerhaven Unit 2, terminates just south of the GREC site. Except for secondary access roads and unpaved trails, no Deerhaven facilities occupy the GREC site.
Immediately west of the GREC site is a site used by the Alachua County Public Works Department for an office and other facilities. Also west of the GREC site is a radio tower and undeveloped land. The southernmost extent of the GREC site fronts on U.S. Route 441, which is lined by intermittent commercial and retail uses in this area. Across U.S. Route 441, over one-half mile from the GREC site, is the nearest residential subdivision, which is called Turkey Creek.
The Application reports that, in the early 2000s, the City of Gainesville purchased an additional 2328 acres of timberland north and east of the Deerhaven site for buffer and potential expansion. The entire area, including the GREC site, was historically devoted to agriculture and pine silviculture,
but the GREC site is now occupied by ditches, swales, some forested communities, and the roads and trails previously mentioned.
According to the Application, the GREC facility will feature a bubbling fluidized bed boiler (BFBB) and conventional steam turbine generator. Except during startup, when the boiler will consume natural gas until it reaches operating temperatures, the BFBB will burn a wide range of clean, woody biomass fuels in a dense, fluidized sand bed at the bottom of the furnace and also in the area above the bed. The biomass fuel will be derived from logging residue, mill residue, and urban wood waste derived from tree trimming.
The BFBB will combust one million tons per year (tpy) of biomass. To obtain the fuel, GREC will enter into contracts with suppliers within 75 miles of the site. GREC will incorporate in supplier contracts requirements of sustainability and incentives for good stewardship in silvicultural practices.
Suppliers will chip or grind the wood at offsite locations and then truck the woody materials to the GREC site. Each truck arriving at the site will be weighed and unloaded, so that the woody biomass can be placed in a fuel storage area until it is needed.
The high combustion temperatures reached by the BFBB and the implementation of the requirement for clean woody fuel
will, the Application reports, limit the generation of pollutants. As described in the Application, GREC will employ three additional pollution-control measures: 1) a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2); 2) a fabric filter baghouse to reduce emissions of particulate matter (PM); and 3) dry sorbent injection (DSI) to reduce emissions of sulfuric acid mist (SAM), hydrogen chloride (HCl), and hydrogen fluoride (HF).
The Application states that GREC will not emit any industrial wastewater from the site. By recycling and reusing water, GREC expects that its water use, primarily to replace water lost to evaporation in its mechanical cooling tower, will be 1.4 million gallons per day, which will be taken from the Upper Floridan Aquifer. GRU has agreed to reduce its water withdrawals by the same amount prior to commencement of operations by GREC.
The GREC site will also include an administration building, a warehouse, several stormwater detention ponds, water and wastewater treatment facilities, storage facilities for the fly ash and sand from the BFBB, two emergency diesel engines, and a switchyard. Linear facilities, several of which extend slightly off of the GREC property, include roads, sanitary sewer and natural gas pipelines, and a 138-kV transmission line and switchyard.
The Application describes various alternatives considered by GRU to the GREC biomass plant. The no-action alternative is implicitly considered and dismissed in a discussion of the age of GRU's other power-generation equipment-
25 years; prevailing power demand during the summer peak season-
-441 MW; and the year of projected capacity shortfall--2023. Among other alternatives, GRU considered renewable sources-- geothermal, solar, biogas from landfills, waste-to-energy, wind, and biomass--and conventional sources--natural gas, coal, coal combusted in a fluidized bed, coal gasification, and nuclear.
In 2007, the City of Gainesville decided not to pursue coal due to climate-change concerns. Governor Crist's executive order on climate change also discouraged the submittal of coal- based applications to the Siting Board. In January 2008, after having solicited and received a round of nonbinding proposals identifying various options, the City of Gainesville invited three vendors, including the predecessor of American Renewables, to submit binding proposals. The resulting proposals discussed eight options--all of which used biomass as the exclusive fuel source. At a meeting in May 2008, the City Commission unanimously voted to accept the American Renewables proposal.
The City of Gainesville has identified numerous benefits from the GREC project. These include enhancing the integrity and reliability of the generating system, reducing the
average age of the generating system, producing reasonably priced electricity, diversifying fuel sources, avoiding the price fluctuations of fossil fuels, hedging the risks of anticipated carbon-constraint legislation (if biomass is treated preferentially under such legislation), reducing construction and operation risks, reducing open burning of biomass products in forestry operations, reducing landfilling of woody biomass, and supporting the silviculture industry.
The site plan depicts the location of all of the components of the GREC facility. By groupings from west to east, the GREC components are the fuel-storage area, which consists of separate wood piles that are described in detail below; parking, offices, a warehouse, a control room, fire pumps, a water treatment facility, and water tanks; a 50-foot wide band of unoccupied land; a switchyard with transmission line running to a new GRU switchyard at U.S. Route 441, the switchyard control room, the steam turbine, fuel day bins connected to the storage area by a conveyor, the boiler, a baghouse, and an aqueous ammonia storage area; and a cooling tower.
These components are concentrated on the north side of the site, farthest from U.S. Route 441, and toward the east side of the site, nearest GRU's Deerhaven operations. The boiler, steam turbine, emissions-control equipment, boiler stack, and
cooling tower are 3200 feet northwest of U.S. Route 441 and 2200 feet east of the public works department.
The GREC switchyard will transform the power to
138-kV. The transmission lines run along the access road to the new GRU switchyard, which is on U.S. 441 in a small outparcel from the GRU parcel. The GRU switchyard will transmit the power to the existing GRU 138-kV transmission lines along U.S. Route
441. GREC will construct the new GRU switchyard and the 300 feet of new 138-kV transmission to the existing transmission lines.
The Application depicts two areas of 100-year floodplain. The northern of these areas is at the northmost part of the GREC parcel. The east end of this floodplain will be converted to three stormwater ponds, and the west end will remain an undisturbed wetland. The southern of the two floodplains is in the area of the new GRU switchyard. The only encroachments on this floodplain will be the access road and transmission line; otherwise, the southern floodplain is left undeveloped.
The Application states that the nearest fire station is 3.4 miles to the south, and the nearest hospitals are 6.3 and
8.3 miles to the south. Solid waste will be transferred ultimately to the New River regional landfill in Raiford, which
has a projected life of more than 50 years at current filling rates.
The City of Gainesville lies at a peninsular divide.
To the east, water drains to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Ocklawaha River and St. Johns River. At the site, water drains into the Gulf of Mexico by way of Turkey Creek, the Santa Fe River, and the Suwannee River. Drainage from a small part of the northern end of the site reaches the Santa Fe River by way of the Rocky Creek drainage basin. The surface waters around the GREC site are Class III waters.
About 72 percent of the GREC site is vegetated by hardwood-conifer mixed and coniferous plantation. The former classification reflects selective thinning of timber, and the latter category reflects a human-altered community. Another ten percent of the onsite vegetation is wetland forested mixed.
No naturally occurring aquatic communities occupy the GREC site. The swales are seasonally wet, but not hydrologically connected to other surface waters, at least up to the design storm. Silviculture has heavily influenced the terrestrial flora communities.
Two biologists, one of whom specializes in wildlife, conducted a wildlife survey on the mornings of May 27 and 28, 2009. Among listed animal species, the biologists saw, heard, or found evidence of no listed species on the site, which is
presently and will continue to be fenced for security reasons. As to listed species, the biologists found only an abandoned burrow that had probably been used by a gopher tortoise and offsite use by alligators and listed bird species.
The biologists found no listed plant species at the GREC site. Five important plant species occur within five miles of the GREC site, but these are found in the San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park, which is 1.5 miles west of the site, immediately west of the Turkey Creek residential subdivision.
As for the potential use of the GREC site by listed wildlife species, the wildlife biologist found moderate potential for only the Eastern Indigo snake, snowy egret, tricolored heron, Southeastern American kestrel, and Florida sandhill crane. The nearby presence of the American alligator, little blue heron, white ibis, and wood stork (roosting only) would also suggest moderately likely use of the GREC site by these listed species.
Longstanding onsite silvicultural practices, including drainage, clearing, and road-building, have disrupted the upland natural plant communities and facilitated their displacement by such nuisance exotics as cogongrass, torpedo grass, and Chinese tallow. The wetlands communities have also been stressed, as evidenced by the presence of dead cypress trees, gaps in natural wetlands vegetation, and opportunistic wetlands vegetation, such
as duckweed and various vines. Suggestive of the post-developed state of the GREC site, the Deerhaven operations also stress the fauna, but the stormwater ponds attract a large number of wetland- and water-dependent species.
The Application states that the predominant winds are from the northeast and west-southwest. The average wind speed is 2.6 meters per second. Calm winds occur 26 percent of the time, primarily in the summer. Situated 55 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 70 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, the GREC site is shielded by enough land mass to reduce or eliminate the destructive effects of most tropical storms.
The Application states that ambient air quality is a product of meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and pollution emissions. Meteorology controls the distribution, dilution, and removal of pollutants. Atmospheric chemistry controls the transformation of primary pollutants into secondary pollutants. Primary pollutants are discharged directly from the source and, for GREC, will include nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM), or, traditionally, soot, although, as a fugitive emission, PM is better considered as dust from the biomass fuel, except when the source is ash residue. For GREC, the most important secondary pollutant is ozone, which forms from the combination of NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in sunlight.
The Application states that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established national ambient air quality standards (AAQS) for six pollutants: SO2, NO2, CO, lead, ozone, and PM, which comprises PM10 and PM2.5. Title I, Part A, Clean Air Act. The latter two pollutants are, respectively, PM not greater than 10 microns and PM not greater than 2.5 microns. Primary air quality standards for these criteria protect human health, and secondary air quality standards for these criteria protect the environment and physical property.
For all six AAQS criteria, the EPA has not designated the relevant area a nonattainment area. The record does not suggest that the EPA has designated any part of Florida a nonattainment area for any of the AAQS pollutants. For the AAQS pollutants, then, the relevant area has acceptable air quality in terms of air impacts on human health. Unlike the Clean Air Act programs involved in this case, the AAQS program focuses exclusively on human health and does not balance impacts to human health or the environment against issues of economic productivity.
EPA has developed an air quality index that describes air quality in relative terms. Good is the highest rating and means that air pollution poses little or no risk. Moderate means that air pollution may be a moderate health concern to a very small number of persons. Unhealthy for sensitive groups
means just that, and healthy groups are unlikely to be affected. Unhealthy means that air pollution may cause everyone to begin to experience health effects, and sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects. The two remaining classifications are very unhealthy and hazardous.
For 2007, the EPA classified the air quality in Alachua County as 315 days of good, 44 days of moderate, and 6 days of unhealthy for sensitive groups. For 2008, the EPA classified the number of good days as only 258. In general, the EPA classifies the air quality of Alachua County as good with the main pollutant adversely affecting air quality as ozone. For Alachua County, stationary fuel combustion generates about
91 percent of the SO2, about 28 percent of the NOx, about 14 percent of the PM2.5, about six percent of the PM10, and nearly none of the CO and VOCs.
Another Clean Air Act program of interest in this case is the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), which is Title I, Part A, § 112, of the Clean Air Act. The NESHAP regulatory scheme focuses on enumerated hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). For Alachua County, HAPS are not attributable primarily to stationary fuel combustion. The Application states that 86 percent of these pollutants were emitted from mobile and area small sources, such as dry cleaners and gas stations.
The main feature of the GREC facility is, of course, the boiler. Emitting 95 percent of the total emissions of the GREC facility, the BFBB consists of sieved natural sand, which is maintained in suspension by a fluidizing air system. The fluidization yields an expanded combustion zone within the boiler with high turbulence, intimate solids-to-gas contact, and a high heat transfer rate. While combusting biomass fuels, the bed temperatures range from 1350 to 1700 degrees. (All temperatures are Fahrenheit.) Overfire air, usually 200 degrees hotter, is introduced to complete the combustion of volatile gases, such as CO.
Flue gas leaving the 179-foot-high boiler passes through emission control equipment before discharging through a single 230-foot-high stack. The fabric filter baghouse will capture PM. As described in the Application, the baghouse comprises 12 filter compartments, each containing 250-350 bags that are six inches in diameter and 14- to 26-feet long. At the bottom of the baghouse is a hopper to collect ash. As PM forms on the bags, it forms a filter cake that increases the filtration efficiency of the bags. But once the air pressure drops to specified limits, high-pressure air pulses are directed, automatically, into each bag, loosening the caked fly ash and depositing it in the hopper below.
Downstream of the baghouse, the SCR will reduce NOx from the flue gas stream by using a catalyst and a reactant (ammonia gas) to dissociate NOx into nitrogen gas and water vapor. The BFBB technology--especially the DSI--combined with low sulfur biomass fuel and the naturally occurring calcium in the wood ash, will control SO2, SAM, HCl, and HF emissions.
Each business day, 130-150 trucks with wood chips will arrive at the GREC facility. They will proceed to a drive- through structure, which contains three truck dumpers and three receiving hoppers. From the hoppers, the fuel will be conveyed to a fuel processing system, where a metal detector and magnetic separator will remove metals, a disc screen will remove oversized chips, and a hammer hog will reduce the oversized chips to the design size of three inches or less. This equipment is located in an enclosed building with a dust- collection system.
The processed fuel is conveyed outside to the fuel storage area. One wood pile will have an automatic stacker/reclaimer that will be able to deposit, churn, mix, and remove nearly the entire pile. Another wood pile, conical in shape, has a fixed stacker, and the material will be moved by bulldozers and front-end loaders. This rolling stock will transfer some of the wood chips to a smaller, manual-reclaim pile that will also be contoured by bulldozers and front-end
loaders. A fourth, much smaller pile will be maintained for the delivery of presized material, mainly sawdust. As originally sized, the wood piles are intended to store sufficient fuel for 15-20 days of operations.
In the Application, the automatic stacker/reclaimer pile is specified to be 85 feet high, but, after consultation with the Gainesville Fire Department, as detailed below, GREC agreed to reduce the height of this pile to 60 feet. The fixed stacker pile is 60 feet high, and the manual-reclaim pile is 35 feet high. The automatic stacker/reclaimer pile is 400 feet by
400 feet, and the manual-reclaim pile is 400 feet by 465 feet.
GREC will manage the separate wood piles to maintain the design moisture content in the fuel, which is about 50 percent, but also to ensure that no portion of the stored wood remains in the pile for too long. In general, GREC intends to use fuel on the basis of first-fuel-in, first-fuel-out, to avoid problems of odor and spontaneous combustion, the latter of which is discussed in detail below.
Fly ash from the boiler and baghouse filter will be collected dry and transported pneumatically to an onsite storage silo. From there--if needed, after stabilization with water-- the ash will be transported--enclosed, if still in dry form--for use as a soil supplement or, if such use is unavailable, to an approved offsite landfill.
Another means of controlling emissions is ensuring that the biomass is suitably clean. The design biomass is forest residue, mill residue, precommercial tree thinnings, used pallets, and urban wood waste, which is predominantly the trimmings of landscape contractors. Supplementary fuels may include herbaceous matter and agricultural residues (such as rice hulls and straw, but not animal matter or manure). The GREC facility will not accept painted, treated, or coated wood, construction and demolition debris, or municipal solid waste.
Relying on four investigations of the adequacy of the supply of available biomass resources, GRU determined that ample supplies exist within a 75-mile radius of the GREC site. Within
75 miles of the GREC site lie 6.44 million acres of timberland, of which 81 percent is privately owned.
To discourage practices among its biomass suppliers that would reduce ecosystem biodiversity, GREC will impose upon them sustainability requirements that will mandate that they comply with the Division of Forestry's best management practices (BMPs) for timber operations and will prohibit the delivery of stumps (to avoid erosion in the source area) and biomass generated from the conversion of natural forests to plantation forests or from nonnative species, unless the nonnative-species biomass is generated from a forest restoration project.
To enforce these sustainability requirements, the power purchase agreement between GRU and GREC requires GREC to obtain annual audits by an independent forestry consultant to assess supplier compliance, incorporate the sustainability requirements into its supplier contracts, require that suppliers identify each load with information sufficient to disclose the source of the fuel and the crew that obtained it, inspect at least 10 percent of all incoming fuels to ensure compliance with the sustainability requirements, require that suppliers maintain documentation for each load for three years, conduct semiannual inspections of all suppliers to investigate operations and recordkeeping, require suppliers to attend annual training seminars conducted by GREC, and suspend deliveries for at least one year from any supplier found to be noncompliant three times in a single year.
To encourage practices among its supplies that will maintain or increase ecosystem biodiversity, GREC will pay premiums of $0.50 or $1.00 per delivered ton of biomass to suppliers that adhere to an approved forest certification program that is more demanding than the Division of Forestry's best management practices.
The Application analyzes boiler and facility emissions in terms of New Source Review (NSR) for Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD), which is Title I, Part C, of
the U.S. Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401, et seq. (Clean Air Act). Although this regulatory program is the subject of the air construction permit case, PSD analysis provides a useful framework for addressing the air impacts from the GREC facility. Among other things, NSR requires, for pollutants subject to PSD review, that the facility control emissions by the best available control technology (BACT), which is the maximum degree of reduction for each PSD-regulated pollutant, using available and feasible technology and taking into account energy, environmental, and economic impacts and other costs.
The Application states that the BFBB will emit NOx, SO2, lead, mercury, CO, VOCs, PM/PM10, and SAM. Except for the lead, mercury, and SAM, the emissions exceed the PSD emissions rate and trigger PSD review. The annual emissions for the BFBB are: NOx--416.4 tpy; SO2--243.9 tpy; CO--713.8 tpy; VOCs--77.3 tpy; total PM--249.8 tpy; and SAM--5.9 tpy. The diesel emergency generator and firewater pump add small increments to these emissions. The other sources of pollution at the facility emit PM of various sizes.
Four sources of material handling present the opportunity for fugitive emissions of PM. Fugitive emissions are nonpoint-source emissions that, although inadvertent, may be projected and modeled. These four sources are transfer points, material processing areas, wood piles, and fuel bins. To the
extent practicable, all transfer points will be enclosed. The vents in storage silos will be equipped with appropriately sized air filters. Water will be used to control dust on the wood piles. The primary roads will be paved, and GREC will sweep and water them to control dust. GREC will water any unpaved trails. After applying all practicable controls, the Application projects material-handling annual fugitive PM emissions to be
11.6 tpy of PM, 2.3 tpy of PM10, and 0.34 tpy of PM2.5. These PM fugitive emissions compare to annual point-source PM emissions-- all assumed to be PM2.5--of 28 tpy.
For the pollutants subject to PSD review--NOx, SO2, CO, VOCs, PM, and PM10--the Application states that GREC's employment of BACT will be directed primarily toward the BFBB. The Application assures: "The proposed configuration of the BFB combustor, DSI, baghouse, and SCR is considered the most stringent emission control technology train available for biomass-fired boilers and to represent BACT for the GREC BFB boiler." Application, Chapter 4, p. 4-49. (GREC's later agreement, as detailed below, to provide even more stringent pollution control technology does not necessarily undermine the force of this assurance in the Application; it would appear instead that the newer technology represents the most most stringent emission control technology train available for biomass-fired boilers.)
NOx emissions will be limited by staging the combustion in the bed and lower furnace area. Combustion staging and flue gas recirculation reduce the flame temperatures, so as to reduce the formation of thermally generated NOx. By providing more than three seconds residence time at temperatures above 1500 degrees, the BFBB will minimize VOC and CO emissions.
SO2 emissions will be limited by several means, starting with the bubbling bed furnace where sufficient amounts of calcium, sodium, and potassium will be available from the biomass ash to capture SO2 in the boiler. The DSI will further control SO2 emissions.
PM/PM10 emissions will be limited by the baghouse's fabric filters, which, after exposure to the alkaline sorbent added by the DSI, will also remove SAM, HCl, and HF. CO and VOCs, which are formed by incomplete combustion of organic compounds contained in the biomass fuel, will be controlled by the duration of residence time, furnace temperatures, and good air mixing in the furnace.
Through dispersion modeling of air impacts, GREC determined that the facility would not violate any PSD increment, although the GREC facility will emit, under the PSD program, significant emission rates of NOx, SO2, CO, PM, PM10, and ozone/VOCs. These matters are discussed in detail below.
The Application states that wood contains trace amounts of mercury. Combustion at 1500 degrees vaporizes the mercury into gaseous elemental mercury. Subsequent cooling may produce elemental mercury, particle-bound mercury, and oxidized mercury compounds, which is also known as reactive gaseous divalent mercury (RGM). The baghouse filters might capture some of these mercury emissions, although GREC's analysis conservatively assumed that they would not.
Of the 16.7 pounds per year of all forms of mercury projected to be emitted by the GREC biomass plant, about 70 percent of it, according to GREC's conservative assumptions, will be elemental mercury and 30 percent of it will be RGM. The former has long residence time in the atmosphere and travels long distances, and the latter deposits locally and regionally.
By comparison, annual anthropogenic emissions of mercury in the United States were 145 tons in 2005, including 48 tons from power plant emissions. In 1999, mercury emissions from Florida coal-fired plants were 1923 pounds. Worldwide, anthropogenic emissions of mercury account for two-thirds of total mercury emissions, the remainder being from natural causes, such as volcanic eruptions and oceans.
The Application considered wet and dry deposition rates of mercury in the Santa Fe River basin. After calculating an average areal wet deposition rate from the GREC facility, the
Application concludes that it is 6000 times less than the average areal wet deposition at the nearest location for which such data are available. The Application also concludes that the wet plus dry deposition rate of mercury from the GREC facility will be 400 times less than the wet-only rate at the comparison location.
Among the socio-economic benefits of the GREC facility, construction will generate $48 million of payroll, largely for local and regional labor, and $160 million in nonengineered construction equipment purchases. Operation will result in the employment at the facility of 44 fulltime employees, initially earning $4 million annually. NonGREC employment will include truck drivers and operators of wood- processing equipment.
Incompleteness Determination and GREC Response
On January 11, 2010, after consulting with affected agencies, DEP determined that the Application was incomplete. Among the issues in DEP's determination were several raised by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC):
GREC relied inappropriately on the Florida Land Use and Cover Forms Classification System (FLUCFCS) for identification of plant communities that provide wildlife habitat; 2) GREC failed to identify the survey methodology (e.g., time of year and types of observed activities) and to perform a desktop review prior to
"appropriate surveys," which "should be conducted during the [reproductive] season particular to each species"; 3) for the three isolated wetlands to be impacted by construction, GREC failed to conduct an amphibian breeding season survey targeting at least the gopher frog and consider the flatwoods salamander, due to the dominance of flatwoods soils on the site, when designing the survey; and 4) GREC failed to detail the maintenance conditions for wetland buffers to address wildlife functions, not merely stormwater functions. FWC concluded that it could not determine potential impacts to wildlife from the Application or conditions that should attach to certification.
By Completeness Responses and Amendment to [Application] dated February 2010, GREC responded to the incompleteness determination. Responding to the issues raised by the FWC, GREC stated: 1) DEP forms and rules approved the use of the FLUCFCS system; 2) GREC had already performed the requested desktop review and detailed the survey methodology, but GREC agreed to a preclearing survey using FWC-approved methodologies and at times likely to maximize the observation of the subject species and further agreed to coordinate with FWC any mitigation methodologies for listed species impacted by construction; 3) the three isolated wetlands, which did not contain standing water, even during the wet season, were of no significant breeding or foraging habitat value and GREC declined
to include methods for the flatwoods salamander because of extensive alteration of the land and the absence of such salamanders within five miles of the site, but GREC agreed to include in the preclearing survey methods for the gopher frog; and 4) GREC agreed to maintain wetland buffers in their current vegetative state.
By letter dated March 4, 2010, DEP determined that the Application was complete.
DEP Report
By Electrical Power Plant Site Certification Project Analysis Report dated July 12, 2010 (DEP Report), DEP analyzed the proposed GREC facility in light of the Application and the applicable requirements of law.
In terms of wetlands impacts, the DEP Report notes that GREC had proposed to mitigate for the destruction of 0.44 acres of low-functioning wetlands by placing in a conservation easement 10.25 acres of higher-functioning onsite wetlands and
12.33 acres of uplands buffer. The DEP Report stated that DEP's Wetlands Section did not object to this proposal.
The DEP Report states that the studies that GREC had commissioned supported a finding that, annually, the supply of biomass exceeded GREC's need by at least five times. The DEP Report reports that Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson had recently concluded that biomass energy production encourages the
sustainability of Florida's forests by discouraging their conversion into other uses through the creation of a market for low-value biomass materials, such as forest residues and premarket thinnings.
The DEP Report states that fluidized bed combustion technology has been used since the 1970s and burns a wide variety of fuels "cleaner and more efficiently" than do other forms of combustion. According to the DEP Report, the Jacksonville Electric Authority uses two circulating fluidized bed boilers at its Northside Generating Station for burning coal, and this technology has reduced emissions by ten percent. According to the DEP Report, the BFBB is better at burning fuel with higher moisture content and lower heating values, so it is more suitable for burning biomass.
The DEP Report approves the Application's BACT analysis. The DEP Report notes that GREC will increase the emissions of three (or four if the PMs are counted separately) PSD-regulated pollutants above significant emission rates: PM, PM10, CO, and VOCs.
Among the more important determinations in the DEP Report is that GREC's NOx and SO2 emissions will be offset with emissions reductions achieved by new air pollution control technology installed by GRU at Deerhaven in 2009. The DEP Report notes that the DEP Division of Air Resource Management
had determined that the Application complies with all applicable federal and state air pollution regulations, and the final air construction permit will be incorporated into the conditions of certification (COC).
The DEP Report reviews the comments of the various reviewing agencies. The agencies approving the Application without condition were the PSC, North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Department of Community Affairs, Division of Historical Resources of the Department of State, City of Gainesville, and Division of Forestry. The agencies approving the Application with conditions were the Suwannee River Water Management District, which required a condition that the GREC facility's groundwater withdrawals of 1.4 million gallons per day be offset by a reduction of 1.4 million gallons per day of groundwater withdrawals by GRU at Deerhaven before GREC operation may commence; the FWC; and the Department of Transportation, whose conditions are irrelevant to this case.
In a letter dated June 10, 2010, FWC recommended five COCs. First, if the site plan is modified to impact listed species, GREC must coordinate with FWC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to identify necessary conservation measures. Second, GREC must evaluate impacted wetlands on a case-by-case basis and establish compatible-use buffer zones and wetland protection buffers around all wetlands, appropriate to the
site's wildlife inventory, in accordance with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's guidelines for wetlands buffers. Third, for gopher tortoises, GREC must investigate the need to obtain from FWC a conservation permit or temporary exclusion permit, if the project will impact gopher tortoises, their burrows, or their habitat. Fourth, GREC must avoid impacts to bald eagle nests, where possible. Where impacts are unavoidable, GREC must obtain from FWC the information necessary for an FWC eagle-nest-removal permit and must implement the minimization and conservation measures identified in the FWC Bald Eagle Management Plan. If nests occur prior to or during construction, GREC must make efforts to avoid construction activities during nesting season or when eagles are present at other times. Fifth, whenever practical, GREC must avoid land-clearing and construction during the active breeding season for the wading and crane-like birds protected by Florida Administrative Code Rules 68A-27.003, 68A- 27.004, and 68A-27.005, and, if nesting activities are detected, GREC must monitor the nesting activities during clearing and construction, except, for sandhill cranes, GREC must cease clearing and construction until the nestlings have fledged.
Based on the Application, the approvals by reviewing agencies, and all other relevant material, the DEP Report recommends that the Siting Board certify the GREC facility, subject to the attached COCs.
Conditions of Certification
Dated July 12, 2010, the COCs are general and specific conditions for the construction and operation of the GREC facility. COC General Condition A.VII. provides that certification is "predicated upon preliminary designs, concepts, and performance criteria described in the [Application] or in support of certification." This provision effectively incorporates the Application into the COCs.
COC General Condition A.VI.A. incorporates the air permits that GREC must obtain under Title I, Part C, and Title V of the Clean Air Act. This condition provides that a violation of either of these permits, the former of which is a construction permit and the latter of which is an operation permit, is a violation of the site certificate. COC General Condition A.XXIV.A. provides that modifications, amendments, or renewals of the air construction permit or Title V operating permit modify the site certificate, and, in case of conflict, the more stringent provisions control.
COC Specific Condition B.I.D. provides that fly ash may be used as a soil supplement, after initial testing and DEP approval, or transported offsite and disposed of in a permitted landfill. COC Specific Condition B.I.D.6. requires reasonable precautions when loading, unloading, and transporting fly ash to control fugitive emissions.
COC Specific Condition B.III incorporates the five items addressed by the FWC in June 10, 2010, letter, which is detailed above. COC Specific Condition B.III.C. requires:
Prior to clearing and construction, the licensee shall conduct species-specific surveys for all listed species that may occur within the certified area The
results of those detailed surveys shall be provided to the FWC and coordination shall occur with the FWC and appropriate permitting agency on proposed impact mitigation methodologies.
COC Specific Condition B.IV. incorporates all but one of the items addressed by the Suwannee River Water Management District. COC Specific Condition B.IV.A. allows GREC to withdraw 1.4 million gallons per day when the plant is fully operational, but there is no provision conditioning this withdrawal on an equal reduction in withdrawals by GRU.
The materiality of this omission is revealed by the water management district's staff report, which is attached to the COCs. The staff report anticipates that a COC that "will reduce allocated quantities for Deerhaven . . . by 1.4 [million gallons per day]." If the GREC site certificate is not conditioned upon an offsetting reduction in groundwater withdrawals by GRU, the water management district's approval cannot be assumed.
Other Findings
Wildlife
Phillip W. Simpson, wildlife ecologist and chief scientist of Environmental Consulting and Technology, Inc., performed wildlife surveys on the GREC site in Spring 2009 and late Summer/early Fall 2009, using standard FWC methodology, including a desktop review of the literature in advance of a survey. Mr. Simpson found one abandoned burrow, formerly occupied by a gopher tortoise. He found five listed, wetlands- dependent species elsewhere on the GRU site: alligator, little blue heron, snowy egret, white ibis, and wood stork.
The GREC site is largely unavailable for wildlife use and has little potential for future wildlife use. Anthropogenic alterations to onsite natural systems have been extensive and persistent, as long-term silviculture was replaced by the uses associated with the construction and operation of a large power- plant complex featuring a coal-powered generator. At this stage, GREC, its consultant, and FWC have adequately identified actual and potential wildlife that may use the site and actual and potential wildlife habitat.
Intervenor's major objection is to the post- certification, preclearing wildlife survey required by FWC and the COCs. This objection is misplaced. The post-certification
survey is not taking the place of pre-certification surveys of a scope reasonable to the conditions prevailing at the site. A post-certification, preclearing survey for this fenced site adjacent to the intense uses associated with a power plant complex is a sensible precaution for the gone-today, here- tomorrow quality of wildlife utilization, primarily by birds.
Other FWC-derived COCs amply address the unlikely contingency of a late discovery of probable impacts to wildlife by requiring coordination with FWC and adding specific provisions for gopher tortoises, eagles, wading birds, and crane-like birds.
GREC has provided reasonable assurance that the construction or operation of the facility will not cause adverse impacts to any listed wildlife species or their habitat.
Fire
The wood piles present a risk of fire from spontaneous combustion. Microbial metabolic action within the pile can generate sufficient heat to cause the wood pile to combust.
The primary safeguard against this risk is proper fuel management to minimize the heat buildup within the pile. One way to manage the fuel for fire safety is to mix the wood piles to aerate the piles and prevent hot spots.
Another way to manage the fuel is to ensure that the fuel is not allowed to remain in the pile too long. GREC's first-fuel-in, first-fuel-out policy limits the age of any part
of the wood pile. The implementation of this policy is further assured by the fact that the fuel loses heat value over time, so GREC will gain more burn for the dollar by combusting the fuel sooner, rather than later. The ratio of stored fuel to combustion rates suggests that all fuel will be turned over within 20 days--probably sooner, after the late revision lowering the automatic stacker/reclaimer pile by 25 feet, which is described immediately below. Anecdotal evidence suggests that 20 days' residence in the wood pile is well short of the age of fuel that has spontaneously combusted in piles in the past.
The stormwater management system will also enhance fire safety by draining rainwater and runoff from the piles and discouraging the ongoing saturation of the fuel piles. Excessive, intermittent saturation of the pile may encourage the microbial activity that can lead to combustion.
As part of the local review that took place for the GREC facility, Gainesville Fire Department representatives met three times with GREC representatives to address fire safety, as the Development Review Board of the City of Gainesville reviewed the GREC proposal. As a result of these meetings, GREC agreed to a number of changes to assure substantial compliance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards for the management of wood storage areas.
As noted above, one change after consultations with the fire department was to reduce the automatic stacker/reclaimer pile from 85 feet to 60 feet. This reduces the risk of fire by making it easier to mix the entire pile and reduces the volume of fuel stored onsite and, thus, the time that that the fuel may remain unused in the wood pile. Secondarily, this change also reduces the volume of fuel available to burn in an unintended fire.
To conform to NFPA standards, GREC also agreed to place low barrier walls between the fuel piles; to drive stakes around the perimeter of the piles, so inspectors could more easily check that the piles are not migrating or expanding; and to insert temperature probes into the piles to allow timely detection and elimination of hot spots that might otherwise develop into fires. A revised site plan, as reflected in Exhibits 50A, 50B, and 50C, incorporates the barrier walls and perimeter stakes identified above, as well as the layout of the fire main and fire hydrants that loop the fuel storage area and some access issues for firefighting equipment, which may weigh as much as 30 tons.
Subject to the addition of COCs incorporating these fire-safety changes that followed consultation with the Gainesville Fire Department, GREC has provided reasonable
assurance that the operation of the facility will not cause adverse impacts from the risk of fire in the wood piles.
Air Impacts
NOx and SO2
NOx and SO2 emissions are regulated for a number of reasons. NOx combines with VOCs to form ozone, so regulatory efforts to limit ozone focus on NOx, and SO2, itself a threat to human health, is regulated as a precursor to PM2.5. NOx and SO2 also combine to form acid rain.
The BFBB is responsible for all of the SO2 produced at the GREC facility, which is 171 tpy. The BFBB is responsible for nearly all of the NOx produced at the GREC facility--416 tpy. An emergency generator and fire pump engine add another 1.72 tpy of NOx, for a total of 418 tpy of NOx.
On July 12, 2010, DEP issued a permit to GRU imposing enforceable and permanent reductions on Deerhaven Unit 2's emissions of NOx and SO2--418 tpy of the former and 171 tpy of the latter. These reductions were achieved by GRU's installation of more effective pollution control technology.
Under NSR/PSD, GREC may net out its emissions of NOx and SO2 by taking into account these offsetting GRU reductions because GREC and GRU constitute one major stationary source, under NSR/PSD permitting. Offsetting the increased emissions of GREC with the decreased emissions of GRU is authorized by the
proximity of the two operations and their common operational control.
Specifically, GRU controls GREC's operations through their power purchasing agreement, which gives GRU the authority to dispatch the power generated by the GREC facility, to determine when the biomass plant will start up and shut down, to control the amount of electricity that the GREC biomass plant will produce while operating, and the voltage of such electricity. GRU will also supply the switchyard and transmission lines by which GREC-produced power will enter the power grid and will distribute GREC-produced power among GRU customers. GRU will also supply the natural gas that GREC requires for start up and the electricity that GREC requires for start-up and stand-by operations. GRU even agreed to reduce its groundwater withdrawals by 1.4 million gallons per day, so GREC could withdraw an equal amount of groundwater for its operations.
Contrary to Intervenor's contention, this aggregate treatment of GRU and GREC is not a legal fiction designed to circumvent BACT under the NSR/PSD program. On these facts, it would be much easier to prove that the independence of GREC is a legal fiction and that GREC serves as GRU's contractor, ushering the biomass plant through certification, permitting, the acquisition of supplier contracts, and start up, perhaps then to
sell it to GRU at the same late stage that GREC sold the Nacogdoches plant. But whatever the precise relationship between the two entities is, or proves to be, at this stage, without doubt, GRU controls GREC.
Contrary to Intervenor's contention, the emissions reduction achieved by GRU at Deerhaven cannot somehow be disregarded in this case and "banked" as a gain in achieving cleaner air. From all appearances, GRU pursued this emissions reduction--and certainly the permit modification enforcing the emissions reduction against GRU permanently--for the same reason that it agreed to reduce its groundwater withdrawals. The reason is not an abundance of good will among corporate partners working shoulder to shoulder in providing America's power needs or a gestalt moment of environmental awareness. GRU effected this emissions reduction as a strategic decision to enable GREC to come online sooner and provide GRU with a reliable source of power from a plant much newer than any that it has in place at Deerhaven. This is the economic reality of the closer-than- armslength relationship that exists between GRU and GREC.
The netting of NOx and SO2 emissions means that GREC effectively emits no such pollutants. But to put GREC's offset emissions into context, Deerhaven Unit 2 produces roughly 2.5 times the power that the GREC plant will produce. Even after the July 2010 emission reductions, Deerhaven Unit 2 is permitted
to emit 3381 tpy of NOx emissions and 8005 tpy of SO2 emissions. If the GREC plant were scaled up to Deerhaven Unit 2's capacity, the GREC biomass plant would produce about one-third as much NOx and one-twentieth as much SO2. Nothing in the record suggests that GREC's relatively low emissions of NOx and SO2--even without regarding to netting--presents a significant risk to human health or the environment.
GREC has provided reasonable assurance that the operation of the GREC facility will not cause adverse air impacts in the form of NOx and SO2 emissions.
2. Hazardous Air Pollutants
Hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) are identified and regulated under NESHAP. The EPA has designed numerous compounds as hazardous air pollutants, including HCl, HF, certain metals, and various organic compounds, including dioxins, which Intervenor has elected to treat separately and are considered in the next subsection.
Based on the information contained in the Application, the potential emissions by the GREC facility's emissions of HCl and HF, as well as total HAPs, were sufficiently high to trigger MACT case-by-case review. In Appendix A of the Application, the HCl and HF emissions were projected to be 36 tpy and 71 tpy, respectively, and total HAPs were 114 tpy.
However, after DEP representatives advised GREC representatives that their HCl and HF projections seemed very high, based on their experience with comparable facilities, GREC representatives met with representatives of the boiler manufacturer, Metso, to determine if they could implement more stringent emission control technology to reduce HAPs emissions sufficiently to avoid triggering MACT case-by-case review, which would have added several months to the review process.
On February 2010, GREC presented to DEP a revised set of projections of HAPs emissions that were just beneath the thresholds calling for MACT case-by-case review, which are 10 tpy for any single HAP and 25 tpy of all HAPS. The revised projections called for 9.72 tpy of HCl and HF, each, and 24.7 tpy of all HAPs.
GREC justified these revised projections by several means. First, Metso reconsidered the chlorine and fluorine concentrations in the clean woody biomass to be received by the GREC facility, reevaluated the chemical reactions, and reduced its earlier assumptions. Second, Metso and GREC selected a more effective sorbent, trona, which reduces the emissions of HF and HCl. Third, Metso and GREC increased the amount of sorbent to be injected into the flue gas system, which will further reduce emissions of HF, HCl, and SO2. Fourth, Metso and GREC changed the catalyst in the SCR, which will remove HAPs more
effectively. Fifth, Metso and GREC increased the size and optimized the design of the fabric filter baghouse, which will further reduce stack emissions of PM, but also HAPs to a lesser degree.
These are not paper adjustments, but are actual investments in technology that will cost GREC millions of dollars. Intervenor is skeptical, partly due to the proximity of the revised projections to the regulatory thresholds.
Interestingly, the actual projection for HF is much less than 9.72 tpy. Metso and GREC selected 9.72 tpy for HF to allow them some margin of error in the projections. GREC's motivation was obviously to a avoid a sub-threshold breach of a projected emissions limit and the resulting regulatory intervention of DEP. Metso's motivation probably arises from the fact that, to induce GREC to purchase its boiler, Metso provided GREC a guarantee that, at least initially, the boiler will meet these revised HAPs emissions limitations. So, the proximity to regulatory thresholds, at least for HF, is not a ground for suspicion, as Intervenor implies.
As revised, the pollution control systems controlled HAPs, and other pollutants, as follows: 1) good combustion practices in the BFBB control PM, CO, VOCs, and HAPs generally;
the fabric filter baghouse controls emissions of PM10, PM2.5, and HAPs; 3) clean biomass fuel, reaction with alkaline fly ash,
and the DSI control SO2 and SAM; 4) the ammonia-based SCR controls NOx, VOCs, and HAPs generally; and 5) high-efficiency drift eliminators in the cooling tower control PM.
The last factor supporting the revised HAPs projections is that the GREC facility will monitor a wide range of HAPs, as well as PSD pollutants, in accordance with the following program: 24-hour, 30-day, and 12-month continuous emission monitors (CEMS) for SO2 and NOx; an initial and annual stack test for SAM; a 30-day CEMS for CO; an initial stack test and 12-month CEMS for HCl and HF; an initial and annual stack test and 12-month CEMS for the HAPs projected to total 24.7 tpy; an initial and annual stack test for PM/PM10; and an initial and annual stack test for visible emissions and VOCs.
Finally, the GREC facility's HAPs emissions are offset by decreases in emissions of HCl and HF, as well as SAM and mercury, as a result of the enhanced pollution control technology adopted by GRU at Deerhaven. Although these reductions, which are all greater than the emissions of these pollutants by the GREC facility, are not enforceable, for the certification case, they are relevant in assessing the air impacts from the GREC facility.
Subject to the addition of COCs incorporating these revisions in pollution control technology, including the above- described CEMS, GREC has provided reasonable assurance that the
operation of the GREC facility will not cause adverse air impacts in the form of HAPs, including HF, HCl, and total HAPs.
3. Dioxins
Dioxins are compounds that result from the combustion of chlorine-containing materials, including wood. The family of "dioxins" includes furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (more commonly known as PCBs), which all are within the family of persistent organic pollutants. Common sources of dioxins include boilers, electrical power plants, municipal and medical waste incinerators, crematoriums, cement kilns, forest fires, household fireplaces, cigarette smoking, pulp production, and open burning.
Dioxins have been associated with cancer and disorders of the immune, skin, digestive, and reproductive systems, where dioxins may act as endocrine disruptors. Work with rats suggests that a major effect of excessive dioxin exposure in utero is upon the reproductive system of the fetus.
Dioxins are persistent. Their half lives in the environment range from 30 to 40 years. Because they are hydrophobic and accumulate in fatty tissue, dioxins enjoy half lives of 7-12 years in humans. Humans acquire dioxins by breathing, skin contact, consuming water, consuming food, breastfeeding, and transplacental movement while in utero. The last three means are the principal routes of human exposure.
The virtually safe dose, or reference dose, for dioxins is low: one picogram per kilogram per day. One picogram is one-trillionth of one gram, although an EPA work in progress may lower this reference dose to 0.7 picograms per kilogram per day. For the late 1990s, the EPA estimated that the average American acquired 6-10 picograms per kilogram per day, later reducing this estimate to 6-8 picograms per kilogram per day. The EPA estimate for children, including breast-fed infants, is five to seven times higher, around 40 picograms per kilogram per day. This is about 60 times higher than the virtually safe dose.
The trends for dioxin levels are good. In its 2006 reassessment of dioxin, the EPA reported that dioxin levels in the environment had decreased by over 90 percent since the late 1980s. Over roughly the same period, the Centers for Disease Control reported that dioxin concentrations in human blood had decreased 80 percent, although decreases in dioxin concentrations in human fatty tissue over the same period of time are likely less.
To some extent, the pollution control equipment will limit dioxin emissions, especially the redesigned fabric baghouse and SCR catalyst. Also, the temperature of the air leaving the stack will be about 310 degrees--90 degrees below the temperature at which dioxins form.
But dioxin emissions are not explicitly addressed in the certificate and air construction permit. Although the 24.7 tpy limit on HAPs applies to dioxins, which are HAPs, this limit would provide little in the way of assurance as to most dioxins.
The reason for the failure to address dioxins for the GREC facility is that it will not emit them in significant amounts. ECT principal engineer, Thomas Davis, who has considerable experience in air pollution control technology, analyzed the potential for dioxin emissions from the GREC boiler. Mr. Davis found five fluidized bed boilers for which relevant data were available on the rate of dioxin emissions. He then applied the emissions rate to the GREC boiler.
Mr. Davis determined that the GREC boiler will likely emit .11 grams per year of all dioxins and about .012 grams per year of 2,3,7,8 TCDD, the most potent dioxin.
Expressed in another way, the .11 grams per year of total dioxins emitted by the GREC boiler is 110,000,000,000 picograms per year or 301,369,860 picograms per day. If the average person--young and old--weighs 50 kilograms, this emission rate translates to about 6 million picograms per kilogram per day. If the population of Alachua County were 250,000 persons, then the daily exposure, without regard to dispersion patterns, would be 24 picograms per day.
For many reasons, 24 picograms of dioxins per kilogram per day of exposure represents only a starting point in the calculations necessary to grasp the limited extent of the dioxin exposure posed by the GREC boiler. An adjustment of one order of magnitude is suggested by the fact that Mr. Davis calculated the emissions rate of most toxic 2,3,7,8 TCDD at one- tenth the rate of the dioxins family. This means that the most toxic dioxin is produced at the rate of only 2.4 picograms per kilogram per day.
An even larger adjustment is required because the GREC biomass plant will displace substantial open burning that presently takes place in North Florida. The result will be a large net reduction in dioxin emissions. How much and over what area is hard to say, partly due to the replacement of dispersed burning with point-source combustion. The record supports an estimate that about half of the biomass to be combusted by GREC would have been open burned. Using this estimate, the open burning of this biomass would have produced dioxin emissions of 3-8 grams per year. GREC has effectively replaced these dioxin emissions with .11 gram per year.
The record does not support another adjustment for dioxin exposures based on dispersed emissions of 3-8 grams per year and a point-source emission of .11 grams per year. However, if the dispersed emissions are closer to agricultural
areas, due to food consumption as the primary means of consumption, as opposed to inhalation, this adjustment would probably inure to the benefit of GREC.
Calculations by two witnesses confirm the insubstantial impact posed by the GREC boiler in terms of dioxins. Mr. Davis also calculated dioxin dispersal patterns for air and deposition and found that the average annual maximum concentration was .000000000149 micrograms per liter of air per and the average annual wet and dry deposition rate was
.0000000000206 grams per square meter. These are reassuringly low numbers.
Making more elaborate dioxin calculations,
Dr. Christopher Teaf, an expert in environmental chemistry, toxicology, and human health risk assessment, performed a large number of calculations in the most conservative manner possible, such as by assuming that all dioxins were 2,3,7,8 TCDD and treating the emissions from the GREC boiler as new emissions (i.e., disregarding the fact that GREC's dioxin emissions displace far greater dioxin emissions from open burning).
Dr. Teaf showed that air concentrations and wet and dry deposition rates were well below--usually, by one or more orders of magnitude--recently published EPA regional screening levels for air, water, and soil.
Intervenor's argument for COCs to limit dioxin emissions and require a CEMS to detect their presence misses a couple of points. The GREC boiler will result in a net reduction in dioxin emissions, and its netted dioxin emissions are not, themselves, significant.
GREC has provided reasonable assurance that the operation of the GREC facility will not cause adverse air impacts in the form of dioxins.
4. Fugitive Emissions
Fugitive, non-stack emissions of PM refer to emissions that escape the GREC facility, not emissions that are discharged through the stack. Fugitive PM emissions may escape the facility from the roads, the wood piles, and anywhere that sufficiently fine particles are capable of suspension into the air column and transport offsite. Most of the fugitive PM emissions may be regarded as wood dust, although the fugitive emissions from ash may be regarded as soot.
But the risks from fugitive emissions of PM appear to be associated more with their size, than their composition. Inhaled, PM causes respiratory and cardiovascular events, including stroke and heart attack. In the relatively large segment of the population with respiratory distress or asthma- like conditions, inhaled PM exacerbates these background
conditions. Recent research is investigating whether PM can cause oxidative stress to human DNA.
Not all PM has the same effect on human health. The finer the particle, the greater the risk to human health. Or, as Dr. Teaf prefers to characterize it, the larger the particle, the less the risk to human health. There is no reference dose for PM2.5, and EPA will be requiring Florida to add NSR/PSD review for PM2.5 by May 2011, but this will impose limits on stack emissions, not fugitive emissions.
According to Appendix A of the Application and DEP's technical evaluation for the air construction permit, the GREC facility is expected to emit 130.4 tpy of filterable PM and
281.2 tpy of PM10. According to Appendix A, the GREC facility is expected to emit 278.3 tpy of PM2.5. According to Appendix A, these totals include PM fugitive emissions--all from material handling--of 11.6 tpy, 2.3 tpy, and 0.34 tpy. As noted above, material handling encompasses the four means by which fugitive emissions will escape the GREC facility.
In contrast to stack PM emissions, fugitive PM emissions do not appear especially responsive to attempts to control them through advanced pollution control technology. For the most part, then, GREC must deal with fugitive PM emissions with operational elements, usually in the form of best management practices (BMPs).
The air construction permit section 2, specific condition 11 prohibits any person from allowing the emissions of unconfined PM from any activity "without taking reasonable precautions to prevent such emissions." The air construction permit technical evaluation includes Tables 16 and 17, which are BMPs adopted by GREC for wood pile management and fugitive dust emissions, respectively. GREC must update these BMPs prior to start up and include them in the Title V operating permit that it must later obtain.
Table 16 requires GREC to manage the wood piles to avoid excessive wind erosion, such as by wetting the pile as necessary and avoiding contouring the pile on windy days. Table
17 requires the covering or partial enclosing of fuel conveyor systems and drop points, as well as the enclosure of the hoppers where trucks dump their loads. All enclosed areas will have local ventilation and fabric filter dust collectors. All major roads at the facility must be paved and swept and wetted, as necessary to minimize fugitive dust emissions.
GREC also controls fugitive PM emissions by ensuring that the fly ash and bottom ash are handled in a way that minimizes the release of dust. If trucks dump extra fine woody material, screens will separate such fines because they have a higher value as potting medium. Given the projected moisture
content of 50 percent and the size of the chips, the potential for fugitive dust from the wood piles may not be great.
Much of the fugitive emissions from the GREC facility will be captured by existing vegetation, on the south, west, and north of the GREC site. To the east is the GRU Deerhaven plant complex. Most of the dust will fall on the surrounding GRU site, especially along the south fenceline, according to dispersal modeling done by Mr. Davis. Some will fall on the county public works site to the west. Relatively little of the dust will make it south to U.S. 441 or further south to the nearest residential area.
By way of comparison, Mr. Davis estimated that forest wildfires produced one order of magnitude more PM and PM2.5 than GREC will emit.
Subject to the addition of COCs incorporating these BMPs and operational elements for the control of fugitive PM emissions, GREC has provided reasonable assurance that the operation of the GREC facility will not cause adverse air impacts in the form of fugitive PM emissions.
Need for Facility Balanced Against Environmental Consequences
As explained in the Conclusions of Law, the PSC has established the need for the GREC facility, and its determination is an irrebuttable fact in this case. As noted in
the Conclusions of Law, the only need analysis in this case is provided by the PSC, pursuant to Section 403.519, but the statutory certification criterion of the broad interests of the public covers the considerations immediately below. Because the certification statute requires balancing and reasonableness, these considerations of broad interests of the public are framed as needs to be balanced against environmental consequences.
The construction and operation of this relatively large project will serve regional needs for new employment and business opportunities and thus stimulate the regional and local economies. Biomass suppliers and their vendors and contractors will hire new employees to produce the trimmings and thinnings, process them into wood chips, and transport the chips to the GREC facility. The ripple effect of this economic activity will be felt throughout north Florida as these suppliers purchase new equipment for the production, processing, and transporting of the massive amounts of biomass that the GREC facility will require.
The GREC facility will support the large and important pulp industry in north Florida. Leading the world in the production of pulp, the United States produces 30 percent of the world's pulp products. If a country, the southern United States would be the world leader in the production of pulp products. The addition of an important new biomass market will
strengthen the alliance of industry, landowners, and markets that helps to secure America's preeminent position in the production of pulp.
At the same time, the pricing of biomass material, as compared to traditional timber products, ensures that the newly developed market for biomass will not distort sound silvicultural practices. The highest value timber resources are for poles and veneer, and, in north Florida, suitable timber prices out at about $70-90 per ton. Pulpwood brings about $50 per ton. As boiler fuel, woody resources yield only about $20 per ton. The relative value of timber as biomass fuel is thus sufficiently low to deter the conversion of standing timber for this purpose.
Instead of undermining sound silvicultural practices, the new market for biomass materials will enhance the viability of forestry resources and thus serve regional environmental needs. By requiring sustainable silviculture and rewarding good stewardship among its biomass suppliers, GREC promotes the health of north Florida's vast timber resources and increases the natural functions served by these resources, when compared to silvicultural practices that do not conform to these standards.
The creation of a large biomass market will serve the broad public interest by slowing or reversing recent losses of
timberland. Less than half of the timber plantation harvested in the past ten years has been replanted. The conversion of even short-rotation timberland to urban uses is a serious problem, even in north Florida, in terms of impacts to natural resources, such as groundwater and wildlife habitat. The GREC facility provides new incentives for replanting.
On a smaller scale, the GREC facility will provide incentives to landowners who selflessly replant more valuable timber products, in terms of natural functions, such as longleaf pine, that may offer less economic return than other products that provide the opportunity for quicker harvest. One such person, Virgil Allison of Crescent City, testified that he recognized that he would not live to see the economic benefit of his recent replanting of longleaf and loblolly pine, but he would have benefitted, if the GREC facility were already in operation, from the creation of a market for the nearly 100 acres of underbrush that he recently cleared in order to create better growing conditions for his forest.
Not only does the clearing of underbrush produce better growing conditions, it also removes the fuel for catastrophic, unnaturally intense forest fires. Together with thinning, clearing of underbrush reduces the risk of, and damage from, invasive pests.
Also among the broad public interest served by the GREC facility is reduced consumption of valuable landfill space that will result from burning biomass, rather than landfilling it. Other needs, such as the diversification of fuel supplies are within the matters addressed by the PSC.
The sole environmental consequence that requires a revision of the COCs arises from an apparent oversight by DEP. In the attached COCs derived from the Suwannee River Water Management District, DEP has incorporated the water management district's permission for GREC to withdraw 1.4 million gallons per day of groundwater, but has neglected to incorporate the water management district's requirement, discussed above, that GRU reduce its groundwater withdrawals by an equal amount. This omission converts the one-stop permitting of site certification to no-stop permitting, as least as to groundwater withdrawals, and, uncorrected, would allow GREC to withdraw a large volume of groundwater, essentially over the objection of the water management district and without analysis by DEP or the Siting Board.
Subject to the addition of a COC conditioning GREC's right to withdraw 1.4 million gallons per day of groundwater on an enforceable revision of a GRU certificate or permit to reduce its right to withdraw an equal amount of groundwater, GREC has provided reasonable assurance that the need for the GREC
facility, considering the broad public interests that will be served by the facility, outweighs any adverse environmental consequences of the facility.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the subject matter. §§ 120.569, 120.57(1), 403.5065, and 403.508(2)(a), Fla. Stat.
Section 403.509(3), Florida Statutes, provides:
In determining whether an application should be approved in whole, approved with modifications or conditions, or denied, the board, or secretary when applicable, shall consider whether, and the extent to which, the location, construction, and operation of the electrical power plant will:
Provide reasonable assurance that operational safeguards are technically sufficient for the public welfare and protection.
Comply with applicable nonprocedural requirements of agencies.
Be consistent with applicable local government comprehensive plans and land development regulations.
Meet the electrical energy needs of the state in an orderly, reliable, and timely fashion.
Effect a reasonable balance between the need for the facility as established pursuant to s. 403.519 and the impacts upon air and water quality, fish and wildlife, water resources, and other natural resources of the state resulting from the construction and operation of the facility.
Minimize, through the use of reasonable and available methods, the adverse effects on human health, the environment, and the ecology of the land and its wildlife and the
ecology of state waters and their aquatic life.
Serve and protect the broad interests of the public.
Section 403.519(1) and (3), Florida Statutes, provides that the PSC is the sole forum for the determination of need. This provision effectively limits the scope of Section 403.509(3)(d) and (g) to matters outside the scope of the PSC need determination.
Section 403.508(3)(e), Florida Statutes, provides for intervention by persons "whose substantial interests are affected and being determined by the proceeding." In their proposed recommended orders, GREC and DEP concede that Intervenor has satisfied this statutory requirement, which they characterize as standing. If Section 403.508(3)(e) imposes merely a standing requirement, this concession would end the matter, as standing must be raised at the trial level or it is waived. Cowart v. West Palm Beach, 255 So. 2d 673 (Fla. 1971).
However, this substantial-interest statute is probably jurisdictional. Under Section 403.508(6)(a), Florida Statutes, the Administrative Law Judge must relinquish jurisdiction if the parties agree that there are no disputed, material issues of fact or law, as they would have, if Intervenor had not intervened. Thus, the statutory basis for the Administrative Law Judge to conduct the hearing and issue
the recommended order is the ability of Intervenor to satisfy this substantial-interest statute. See, e.g., Abbott
Laboratories v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 15 So. 3d 642, 651 (Fla. 1st DCA) (dictum), rev. denied, 26 So. 3d 582 (Fla. 2009); Grand Dunes, Ltd. v. Walton County, 714 So. 2d 473, 474-75 (Fla. 1st DCA 1998) (challenge to a development order under Section 370.07(2), Florida Statutes). But see South Broward Citizens for a Better Environment, Inc. v. South Broward County Resource Recovery Project, 502 So. 2d 9 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986) (site certification case under former statute).
Intervenor satisfies the requirement of a substantial interest. He resides less than 10 miles from a major addition to the Deerhaven power complex that will emit air pollutants at the rate of tons per year. Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority v. IMC Phosphates Co., 18 So. 3d 1079 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009).
GREC has the burden of proving its entitlement to the certificate. Department of Transportation v. J. W. C. Company, Inc., 396 So. 2d 778 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); § 403.509(3)(a), Fla. Stat. Specifically, GREC must provide reasonable assurance that the proposed project with meet the applicable certification criteria. "Reasonable assurance" means a "substantial likelihood that the project will be successfully implemented."
Metropolitan Dade County v. Coscan Florida, Inc., 609 So. 2d 644, 648 (Fla. 3d DCA 1992).
The proceeding is de novo, which means, among other things, that GREC and DEP may introduce evidence in support of the certificate that was not presented to DEP prior to its proposed agency action, and, consistent with due process, the COCs may be modified as a result of the evidence produced at the hearing. Hopwood v. Department of Environmental Regulation, 402 So. 2d 1296 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Charlotte County v. IMC
Phosphates Co., 18 So. 3d 1089 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009).
In its proposed recommended order, GREC contends for a de minimis exception to discharges, but such an exception is unnecessary in a certification case because of the nature of the statutory scheme. Section 403.509(3) directs the Siting Board to consider "whether, and the extent to which," the location, construction, and operation of the power plant will conform to the statutory criteria. The criterion of Section 403.509(3)(a) speaks in terms of "reasonable assurance" that operational safeguards are sufficient for public welfare and protection.
The criterion of Section 403.509(3)(e) requires a "reasonable balance" between the need for the facility and construction- and operation-related "impacts upon air and water quality, fish and wildlife, water resources, and other natural resources." The criterion of Section 403.509(3)(f) is to "minimize"--through
"reasonable and available methods"--the "adverse effects on human health, the environment, and the ecology . . .." The criterion of Section 403.509(3)(g) is to "serve and protect the broad interests of the public."
This statutory scheme is one of balancing and reasonableness. The statutory scheme does not support zero- discharge, anti-degradation, or free-from analysis, in which de minimis impacts could potentially play a greater role. Under the certification statute, trivial impacts will receive the attention that they deserve, as they are subsumed by larger considerations during the exercise of balancing and reasonableness that the statute requires.
Intervenor attempts to engraft onto this proceeding a statutory scheme of zero-discharge, anti-degradation, or free- from analysis when he argues that Section 403.509(3)(b) incorporates the broad protections of Section 403.161(1)(a), Florida Statutes, which prohibits any person from causing pollution, except as otherwise provided by Chapter 403, so as to harm or injure human health or welfare. As DEP and GREC contend, this broad prohibition is inapplicable to the present case because Sections 403.501-403.518--otherwise known as the Florida Electrical Power Plant Siting Act--govern this case and are part of Chapter 403. The proper reading of Section 403.509(3)(b) is that DEP is to apply the substantive
requirements of, say, FWC or the Suwannee River Water Management District to this case, as DEP coordinates the permitting and certification processes in a manner consistent with the legislative intent set forth in Section 403.502, Florida Statutes.
Intervenor's argument also ignores the fact that Section 403.161 is not a requirement of an agency, as are the requirements of FWC or the water management district. Section
403.161 is a basis for establishing a claim by the state for damages or criminal liability, as provided by, respectively, Section 403.161(2) and (3)-(5), Florida Statutes. For this reason, too, the prohibition of Section 403.161 is not incorporated into this proceeding by Section 403.509(3)(b).
In its proposed recommended order, GREC touches on a far more lively issue when it discusses the "interplay" between this certification case and the air permit construction case. Two points are clear, and GREC makes them quickly. First, DEP's final-order authority in the air construction permit case is not determined by the action of the Siting Board in the certification case. §§ 403.509(5) and 403.511(6), Fla. Stat. Second, as noted above, COC General Condition A.VI.A incorporates the air construction permit and the Title V permit.
In its proposed recommended order, GREC presents another aspect of the interplay issue by offering two arguments
in the alternative. Consistent with its objections and argument during the certification hearing, GREC's preferred argument is that the Siting Board should weigh any air impacts from the GREC facility without reference to the technical air programs of the Clean Air Act--specifically, NSR/PSD and NESHAP. In the alternative, GREC incorporates aspects of these programs, such as the identification of important air pollutants, the netting of PSD pollutants, and the consideration of BACT for PSD pollutants and MACT for HAPs, in order to illustrate how the proposed facility does not pose adverse air impacts, within the scope of the certification case.
Consistent with the rulings at the hearing, the Administrative Law Judge concludes that no good reason exists to carve out of the certification case matters that arise out of these technical air programs, as long as the parties remember that, contrary to Intervenor's allegations, the certification statute ultimately requires an exercise in balancing and reasonableness, not the detection of "violations."
Both NSR/PSD and NESHAP offer useful tools and structures for the consideration of air impacts in a certification case. Reference to these two air programs is facilitated by the fact that they, unlike AAQS, are not exclusively concerned with impacts to human health or the environment; they weigh these impacts against issues involving
productivity. The intent of Title I of the Clean Air Act, which encompasses both NSR/PSD and NESHAP, is to promote public health and welfare and "the productive capacity of [the Nation's] population." § 101(b)(a), Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C.
§ 4701(b)(1). And one of the stated purposes of the PSD program is to ensure economic growth consistent with preserving existing clean air resources. § 160(3), Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C.
§ 7470(3). As has already been discussed, the certification statute requires the same exercise in balancing and reasonableness in weighing the broad public interest served by a proposed facility, in addition to the PSC-determined need, against any environmental impacts.
Subject to the addition of COCs incorporating the above-described fire-safety changes that followed consultation with the Gainesville Fire Department, the above-described revisions in pollution control technology (including CEMS) that preceded the restatement of emissions of HF, HCl and total HAPs below the regulatory thresholds, the above-described BMPs and operational elements to control fugitive emissions, and the above-described provision conditioning GREC's right to withdraw
1.4 million gallons per day of groundwater on an enforceable revision of a GRU certificate or permit to reduce its right to withdraw an equal amount of groundwater, GREC has provided
reasonable assurance that the construction and operation of the proposed facility will comply with the certification statute.
It is
RECOMMENDED that, subject to the conditions set forth in the preceding paragraph, the Siting Board enter a final order granting the site certificate for the construction and operation of the GREC facility.
DONE AND ENTERED this 1st day of November, 2010, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida.
S
ROBERT E. MEALE
Administrative Law Judge
Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building
1230 Apalachee Parkway
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060
(850) 488-9675 SUNCOM 278-9675
Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us
Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 1st day of November, 2010.
COPIES FURNISHED:
Lea Crandall, Agency Clerk
Department of Environmental Protection Douglas Building, Mail Station 35
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000
Tom Beason, General Counsel
Department of Environmental Protection Douglas Building, Mail Station 35
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000
Mimi Drew, Secretary
Department of Environmental Protection Douglas Building
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000
David S. Dee, Esquire Young Van Assenderp, P.A.
225 South Adams Street Suite 200 Tallahassee, Florida 32301-1700
Toni Sturtevant, Esquire
Department of Environmental Protection Douglas Building, Mail Station 35 3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3000
Thomas W. Brown, Esquire Brannon, Brown, Haley &
Bullock, P.A. Post Office Box 1029
Lake City, Florida 32056-2029
Jennifer Brubaker, Esquire Florida Public Service Commission 2450 Shumard Oak Boulevard Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0850
Matthew G. Davis, Esquire Department of Community Affairs 2555 Shumard Oak Boulevard Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2100
Kimberly Clark Menchion, Esquire Department of Transportation
605 Suwannee Street, Mail Station 58
Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Scott Koons
North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
2009 Northwest 67th Place, Suite A Gainesville, Florida 32653
David L. Wagner, Esquire
12 Southeast First Street Gainesville, Florida 32601
Jonathan F. Wershow, Esquire
204 Southeast First Street Post Office Box 1260 Gainesville, Florida 32602
Laura Kammerer
Bureau of Historic Preservation
R. A. Gray Building
500 South Bronough Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Marian B. Rush, Esquire Rush & Glassman
11 Southeast 2nd Avenue Gainesville, Florida 32601
Forrest Watson
Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
Division of Forestry 3125 Conner Boulevard
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1650
Patricia Anderson Department of Health Environmental Engineering 4042 Bald Cypress Way
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1742
Marion Joseph Radson, Esquire Office of the City Attorney Post Office Box 1110
Gainesville, Florida 32602-1110
Kelly K. Samek, Esquire
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Road Tallahassee, Florida 32399
Thomas Bussing
1832 Northwest 11th Road Gainesville, Florida 32605
Mick G. Harrison, Esquire
205 North College Avenue, Suite 311 Bloomington, Indiana 47404
NOTICE OF RIGHT TO SUBMIT EXCEPTIONS
All parties have the right to submit written exceptions within
15 days from the date of this Recommended Order. Any exceptions to this Recommended Order should be filed with the agency that will issue the Final Order in this case.
| Issue Date | Document | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Dec. 15, 2010 | Agency Final Order | |
| Nov. 01, 2010 | Recommended Order | Applicant entitled to a certificate on existing site for biomass-fired power plant of 100 MW in Gainesville after applicant provided reasonable assurance that need outweighed environmental consequences and broad public interest served by the new plant. |
