by Alan Journet - with photos at end
Richard Kinder formerly of Cape Girardeau, and currently CEO of Kinder-Morgan Incorporated (K-MI), has enjoyed adulatory publicity recently in several money magazines. His company, which owns thousands of miles of pipeline carrying energy fuels through much of the nation, has recently expanded its holdings by merging and acquiring thousands more miles.
Whether it is just the run of business, or is designed to demonstrate to the “Home Town” folks that he really has hit the big time, Kinder’s K-MI is trying to move into Cape County, but not just with a pipeline. In this project K-MI plans to build and operate an electrical power generating plant situated in the southwest corner of the county.
The plant would be located just three miles from a pumping station on the newly acquired K-MI gas pipeline that runs through Marble Hill. It is also adjacent to a regional AmerenUE sub-station that is part of the main power grid serving many lower mid-western states. The plan is to construct a power plant that burns natural gas delivered by the K-MI pipeline and pump the generated power into the nearby grid.
To drive the plant, large quantities of water will be pulled from six wells for cooling the jet turbines. To assess the adequacy of local water supply, exploratory wells were drilled and run on a 100-acre property on County Road U purchased from the Aarens family (though as of this writing, the contract has yet to be honored by K-MI- they have yet to pay for the land on which they are now drilling). The site is immediately adjacent to the family farm of Alvin and Nora Seabaugh. When the exploratory well was drilled and pumping commenced in mid-May, a huge plug of prime farmland on the Seabaugh property measuring approximately 30 feet in diameter slumped some 25 feet directly downwards. An extensive series of cracks also appeared in the surrounding terrain, with gaping holes opening up to a foot wide and more than two feet deep. These cracks appear to run in concentric circles around the initial sunken plug and pose a threat of future land slippage; they occupy several acres of the Seabaugh farm.
K-MI instantly fenced the hole and planted dozens of pink flags around the area marking the cracks, and without comment or seeking permission, they posted the area with “No Trespassing” signs. K-MI has since argued that the appearance of the hole at the time of well operation was just a coincidence. Maybe to conceal the evidence, and maybe so they would appear to be good neighbors, K-MI offered to apply a band-aid solution, and fill the hole. According to DNR, however, sinkholes such as this are almost always man-made events; filling rarely prevents recurrence.
K-MI and State Senator Peter Kinder, a relative (though distant), have been trying to persuade the Governor and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to undermine, minimize, or ignore air quality regulations. However, the initial air emission permit application filed by K-MI was returned by the DNR-DEQ (Division of Environmental Quality) as unacceptable. Apparently, K-MI argued that, since the power plant would be burning natural gas, it should be permitted to operate free of controls. Furthermore, the company argued that Missouri should not be allowed to enforce its own clean air regulations since these are more stringent than the minimal federal EPA regulations. Apparently, when state regulations are inferior to federal regulations, corporations want the “one size fits all” federal regulations that they whine about much of the time. Of course, other power plants constructed in Missouri have met the state requirements. The K-MI claim was made despite the acknowledgement that, if operated as planned, the facility would release some 500 tons of smog-inducing oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and carbon (COx) into the air of Southeast Missouri per year. These gases would inevitably drift northeast in the prevailing winds and pollute the air of the only local urban centers of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.
Rather than install cleaning devices (catalytic scrubbers) one suggestion proposed by DNR, in order to meet their air pollution requirements K-MI may elect to operate the plant for fewer hours. This option allows them to evade what they claim is the prohibitive expense of installing pollution controls. However the proposal additionally calls for installation of a back-up diesel generator that the application claims would only be operated during emergencies. These are much more serious sources of air pollutants than is the natural gas.
In July, Kinder Morgan filed an administrative appeal with the Missouri Air Conservation Commission, challenging the DNR staff denial of their permit application. Meanwhile, MODNR-DEQ recently issued a Notice of Violation to Kinder Morgan because the company began construction (drilling wells) prior to the issuance of an air permit. MODNR also was concerned that “contracts related to the supply of electricity from this plant” might be in violation of construction permit rules.
A major concern regarding this project is its relation to the push for energy de-regulation in Missouri – a proposal also driven by Senator Kinder. Should this happen, the concern is that the energy industry will be able to manipulate supply in order to fabricate shortages and create an energy emergency. Energy companies could then use this trumped up emergency as a basis for demanding reduction in the enforcement of environmental regulations – just as has been the case both in California and nationally with the Bush-Cheney drive to increase polluting energy production. If this were to occur, K-MI potentially could then operate the plant at full capacity, pumping out all the noxious gases it defined in its initial permit application – and more! As an Independent Power Producer, K-MI is not bound by regulations imposed on utility companies by the Public Service Commission, the agency that determines the rates that utilities may charge. The interest of IPP companies is solely in profit, a goal that is more easily achieved under energy de-regulation.
As proposed, the plant would have a voracious appetite for water since it would require 2,800 gallons per minute (approximately one and a half million gallons over a 10 hour shift – for comparison, the Missouri discharge at Booneville under low flow conditions is approximately 50 million gallons per minute). When test-wells were operated, the water table in the immediate vicinity dropped 6 – 9 feet. Unfortunately, according to Missouri law, there is no penalty or impediment should an individual or company lower the water table and leave high and dry the drinking or irrigation wells of neighbors. As of this writing, Kinder-Morgan has not submitted a permit request to allow the discharge of the volume of heated wastewater that it will be generating, presumably to flow overland into the Whitewater River, and thence to a Diversion Channel and the Mississippi River.
It should also be recognized that the transformation of prime agricultural land into an industrial facility is one sad consequence of this kind of “industrial development.” This constitutes another step towards urban sprawl in Southeast Missouri. Of course, urban sprawl and the loss of agricultural land to development usually occur in small bights, and only become recognized as a problem when there is but little land left to bight. Although Cape Girardeau County already has a designated industrial area, with access to power grids and natural gas pipelines, apparently K-MI does not own these pipelines. The threat that this power plant might be the first step towards urban sprawl and creation of another polluting industrial park on what is now prime agricultural land in Southwestern Cape County concerns local residents.
One local fear is that this single electrical generator represents no more than a demonstration project to entice other power companies into the area. These would also use the K-MI pipeline gas supply, deplete the underground water supply, release wastewater, and further pollute the air of Southeast Missouri. This concern is fed by the realization that K-MI is not really a power generation company so much as a gas pipeline company. If a single plant poses a threat to the local and regional environment, one can only imagine what effect multiple such plants would have.
The potential local benefits to the power plant have been considerably exaggerated. Though the plant will, indeed, generate electricity to be fed into the power grid in Cape County, current plans are for this to be sold out of state, in fact in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the claim that the plant would generate many local construction jobs over the short term is negated because the contracted construction company is committed to serving as a non-union site. Local unions are therefore opposed to the project since it can only undercut the conditions of standards and benefits that they have worked to achieve in the region over the years. Indeed, its track record suggests that this construction company imports the labor it needs from out of state when there are too few skilled laborers in the immediate area, as is the case here. Finally, it has been claimed that the operational plant will provide a couple of dozen technical and management jobs – but again, these will most likely be imported from elsewhere.
Your Ozark Chapter has urged both Steve Mahfood, DNR Director, and Governor Bob Holden not to succumb to political or economic pressure exerted either by Kinder-Morgan executives, or their local champion, State Senator Peter Kinder. Through Freedom of Information provisions, we have obtained copies of DNR documents pertaining to the application and its rejection. We are also cooperating with local opponents to request that a project assessment be undertaken by DNR giving due recognition to the range of potential environmental hazards that not just one, but potentially up to five such plants could impose on the region.
Please address your concerns to:
Roger Randolph, Director of Air Pollution Program, and/or
Steven Mahfood, Director
Dept. of Natural Resources
P.O. Box 176
Jefferson City, MO 65102
1-800-334-6946 (press 0 for operator)
Governor Bob Holden
Missouri Capital Building
Room 216
P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0720
573-751-3222 Ask for Patrick Lynn
573-751-1495 fax
Reach Alan at ajournet@biology.semo.edu.
Figure 1. Behind the fence, installed on the farm of Alvin and Nora Seabaugh by Kinder-Morgan in SW Cape Girardeau County, a huge hole appeared immediately following exploratory well construction and operation. Photo by Alan Journet
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Figure 2 The hole, about 30 feet in diameter and 20 feet in depth, is now surrounded by the Seabaugh soybean crop. When the rains came, it both filled and expanded due to the collapse inwards of unstable walls. Photo by Alan Journet
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Figure 3. When exploratory drilling was completed Kinder-Morgan deserted the site, leaving a mess of drums and garbage. Photo by Mathew Kieffer
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