LITTLE ROCK – Attorneys for both sides in the John W. Turk Jr. power plant permit hearings before the Arkansas Public Service Commission here will make their final arguments in the matter on Monday, Oct. 22.
The APSC will then have 60 days in which to decide whether to allow SWEPCO to build the power plant near McNab in Hempstead County, according to the Arkansas Public Service Commission’s website.
SWEPCO lawyers and opposing attorneys representing hunting clubs in the vicinity of the planned power plant have filed closing briefs in the case, detailing their respective positions in the power plant controversy.
“Not only will this plant be ecologically sound and energy efficient, it will provide an unprecedented economic boom to the Hempstead-Miller County area,” SWEPCO’s closing brief in support of the power plant states, in part. “Literally hundreds of people will be afforded the opportunity for jobs that have never before been available to them. The tax base will be increased substantially and those revenues will provide direct benefits to the people of Hempstead and Miller Counties.
“This power plant is in the public interest and SWEPCO respectfully requests the expeditious approval of its Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need for the construction of the John W. Turk, Jr. generating plant,” SWEPCO’s closing brief further states.
Power plant opponents, principally officials connected with privately-owned hunting clubs in the McNab area, argue in their closing briefs that:
• SWEPCO has not demonstrated a need for the power plant.
• SWEPCO has failed to provide sufficient evidence to determine “the nature of the probable environmental impact of the Turk plant.”
• SWEPCO’s evidence concerning the environmental impact of the plant “is so incomplete and inadequate that the environmental impacts of the Turk plant have not yet been categorized or described.”
• The probable economic impacts of the plant have not been fully or accurately evaluated.
• The power plant would result in an 11-percent hike in Hempstead County monthly residential electric bills.
• SWEPCO has not revealed the location of electrical transmission and gas lines needed to operate the plant and distribute electrical energy from it.
The opponents’ closing brief also claims that SWEPCO “commenced construction without a permit” by undertaking preliminary dirt work and clearing at the proposed plant site.
Meanwhile, APSC Chairman Paul Suskie has sent letters to several agencies involved in the hearing notifying them of the final argument schedule – and requesting an update of the agencies’ “comments and/or findings” in the power plant issue.
“The Commission appreciates the written comments your office has provided either directly through the Commission’s General Staff or indirectly through the applicant. Your expertise and opinions concerning this matter are valued and greatly appreciated by the Commission,” Suskie said in the letter.
Suskie sent the letters to the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of the Army, the Vicksburg District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the Arkansas Natural Resource Council.