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What Are Gulf Power’s Plans For North Escambia Facility? Nuclear, Or What?
March 3, 2010
Gulf Power is revealing a little more information about their plans for a power generation plant in North Escambia — nuclear or otherwise.
The electric utility has paid over $3.5 million for just over 750 acres near Bluff Springs. It’s just the beginning of planned purchases, with the company eventually looking to own about 3,000 acres in the area.
“Nuclear, natural gas, solar or biomass.” That was as specific as Gulf Power’s Manager of Public Affairs Sandy Sims would get in a Tuesday afternoon interview with NorthEscambia.com about the latest on the power company’s plans. As for wind generation, current technology would eliminate that possibility for now, she said.
On the acreage currently owned by Gulf Power, soil analysis is underway to determine if the land can support “any type of generation facility”. Permits are being acquired for a meteorological weather station including 300-foot high tower to measure temperatures, wind speeds and rainfall. All of that data will be crunched, Sims said, as Gulf Power moves forward in a decision on building a new generation facility. Preliminary results from soil and drilling samples are expected by about June.
“We are not being intentionally vague,” Sims said. “We are exploring the options.” Final decisions, and the need for the plant, have been pushed out a couple of years due to a slower economy and lower than anticipated customer growth in 2008 and 2009. The company plans to use 2010 to analyze the data gathered on the parcels of land purchased. The projected need for the plant has been pushed to 2018 or 2019.
There’s always the chance, Sims said, that the North Escambia site will not support a power generation facility of the type Gulf Power plans to construct, Sims said. In that case, the land would be resold. But with millions of dollars invested, all options will be explored.
Residents in the area that have sold, or have been approached about selling, their land are quick to say they’ve been told the facility will be nuclear. But Sims continues to stress that all options — including nuclear — will be explored.
There is a large natural gas pipeline in the area, a lot of solar panels fit in 3,000 acres and with the large timber industry presence in the area, biomass fuels could be abundant.
“The area was chosen strategically due to the availability of different options in the area,” she said. “It keeps the flexibility open.”
While most of the land purchased by Gulf Power has been on the west side of Highway 29, the power giant has purchased acreage on the east side of the highway — near the Escambia River.
“If by chance we were to build a nuclear plant, we we would need a source of water,” Sims said.
As Gulf Power continues to purchase land in the Cox and Roach road areas, the electric utility is taking issue with an article published in last Sunday’s Pensacola News Journal. That article was headlined “Gulf Power grabbing up land”.
“There is no ‘land-grab’,” Bentina Terry, vice president of External Affairs and Corporate Services for Gulf Power, said in a written statement Tuesday to NorthEscambia.com. “The article (in the Pensacola News Journal) also tried to imply that we overpaid for certain parcels. The writer referred to a two-acre parcel ‘with brush and scrub pines’ that we purchased for $175,000. What the (PNJ) writer did not mention was there was a home, private well, fencing and large workshop on these two acres. We did not buy a vacant lot – we bought an improved homestead well worth the price paid.” (To read Terry’s complete statement, click here.)
The daily newspaper’s article also stated that some property owners had been threatened with eminent domain — a legal process by which property is seized for the public good and the owner compensated, if they are not willing to sell.
“At Gulf Power Company, that’s not the way we do business,” Sims said. ” We don’t threaten anybody.”
Sims admits that Gulf Power has discussed eminent domain with some property owners, but only because the property owner asked if Gulf Power could exercise the option. “In an effort to be honest and truthful, we have told them that it could be a last option down the road.”
“Whatever we do will be positive for North Escambia,” she said, “and positive for Northwest Florida, regardless of the type of generation facility.”
Pictured above: This property in the 200 block of Roach Road that was purchased by Gulf Power Company last year. Pictured below: The location of some of the land purchased by Gulf Power. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
38 Responses to “What Are Gulf Power’s Plans For North Escambia Facility? Nuclear, Or What?”
Hey, bill, I deal with construction “debates” all the time, so any disagreement on a point here is just that…besides, it is what keeps it interesting.
As to the person (don’t remember who) who mentioned new coal plants are not as hazardous, check this out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07coalash.html?ref=todayspaper
Darryl I agree that you can’t throw caution to the wind, and no God will not let us distroy humanity. But it sounds like the the Bible he is going to let us come close before he steps in.
Just like lots of others when we relay out thoughts on any topic it makes sense to the one typing the message, however not everyone will understand me any more that they will understand what you say each time. But there is nothing wrong with people disagreeing.
As I feel that the Nuclear plants have a pretty good safety record, I don’t expect everyone to agree.
God bless my brother, no harm has came from yours or my opinion. Just conversation.
David and bill: it was the context of bill’s response first talking about how jobs were more important than worrying about some health hazards, which in light of having options, I think the health hazards are important to consider.
As to the religious part, bill’s second paragraph infers by association a sense of protection from basic hazards of the world by God: “We are not saved for pain and hardship of this world but saved for a future world.”
Bill, you may not have meant it as it appeared to me, and if so, sorry, but my point still stands, for there are those who think God would not allow humanity to destroy themselves, in fact there is a more fringe group who actually believe God will not let us run out of oil and will put more in the ground for us, and so we should use it as fast as we want. Funny, those fanatics never discuss safe drinking water, it is things like oil.
As to Rush, I’d agree he is a lot of things, but devout in a religion isn’t one of them but he does manipulate the religious in his audience from time to time. I mentioned him for he propagates the notion that we can not do harm to our environment:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201002020036
On his argument that there can never be too much CO2, that is not correct; look at Venus (from a scientist I know):
How dangerous is a buildup of carbon dioxide in an atmosphere? Back in the 1940’s, scientists thought that the planet Venus would be a lush, tropical planet with a very warm yet quite hospitable surface. If it had a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere like the Earth does, it would have an average global temperature somewhere around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. But Venus has an atmosphere that is almost entirely carbon dioxide. The average global temperature is 900 degrees Fahrenheit. At those temperatures, nitrogen combines with other materials and is depleted from the atmosphere. Sulfur is baked from the rocks where it escapes into the atmosphere to combine with hydrogen and oxygen to make sulfuric acid. All the clouds that keep us from seeing the surface of Venus are concentrated sulfuric acid.
no sweat
I’ve been called far worse
David considering changing name to Davis to accomodate
Sorry about miss spelling your name David. I really have a hard time proof reading my own.
Praise God for Davis Huie Green…a man that understands.
REGARDING:
“As to your religious faith, the only thing there is the insinuation that being a Christian gives you some sort of shield against material dangers is wrong. Christians are just as likely to get cancer, get poisoned or suffer brain damage from mercury as anyone else, and the really scary notion I’ve heard Rush and some others say is that we shouldn’t worry about pollution for God would never allow us to destroy the earth is crazy, and hope you are not advocating this.”
Nope, not what he said. Besides, why do you include Rush in with Christians? He doesn’t act in a manner consistent with the teachings of Christ.
Nor did big b imply bad things couldn’t happen to Christians. In fact he clearly wrote:
“Bad things do happen to good people. We that believe in and live for Jesus should never fear the things of this world. We are not saved for pain and hardship of this world but saved for a future world. As Christians we don’t belong to ourselves but bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus.”
This doesn’t mean he wants to see if he can destroy this world but that he knows we all die someday and he has hope for an eternal future .
bill, first off, when you have a choice between one system that has certain protections in place (such as nuclear power) and one that even with so-called improvements, there are still very poisonous contaminates being released (such as coal fired plants), so the notion that you just take whatever you can get and be thankful is a little too short sighted for my taste.
As to your religious faith, the only thing there is the insinuation that being a Christian gives you some sort of shield against material dangers is wrong. Christians are just as likely to get cancer, get poisoned or suffer brain damage from mercury as anyone else, and the really scary notion I’ve heard Rush and some others say is that we shouldn’t worry about pollution for God would never allow us to destroy the earth is crazy, and hope you are not advocating this.
Just here in the north end and Alabama we have Chemical plants, paper mills, petroleum products even Gulf power, all of them have potential dangers and serious heath hazards. Plants that have been in this area for many years and provided pretty good jobs for this area. Even being a police officer, ambulance driver, EMT, fireman and just being a school teacher has elements of danger. Working in a convenience store, drug store, super market, hardware stores fast food. Where can you find a job that has no danger.
My question now in do we live off fear or hope and faith. Bad things do happen to good people. We that believe in and live for Jesus should never fear the things of this world. We are not saved for pain and hardship of this world but saved for a future world. As Christians we don’t belong to ourselves but bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus.
All the people that write the mean and hateful things, that attack anything that others say. These are the instigator’s who love to stir hatred and want to see people rise up against each other. These are the cowards that run and hide when the trouble starts. After it’s over they creep out like cock roaches in the night. They change there names on these blogs more often than they change underwear. Don’t let them bother you, they are their own worst enemies.
God Bless you my brother in Jesus Christ.
Big b little ill all for helping one another not destroying each other.
I agree with John Bryan. Go to Betchel.com Click on ongoing projects. Look at at the new coal burner they are building in Il. Praier State Energy. Then click on beacon of hope for Il. It will tell you how much it would help this area now and in the future. Also go to the Elm Road project it is steam power The one in Il is a coal fired It will produce less emissions.than the ones that are already build. Husband is at present time on the Prairer State project. It will be one of the cleanest coal burners. I hope that we get a power plant in this area. This would produce great jobs for our children and grandchildren. The nuk plant are as safe as the steam or coal burners. as far as the land aroud the nuk plants I have been to Browns Ferry area several times when husband was working there. The land around it is beautiful. lots of land with cattle. Some of the plants that have been build by Southern Power in the last several years are supply electric as far away as Gulf Shores. I believe this one is the steam power at Prattiville. We need this plant for the future of our children and grandchldren.
Thank you guys for your input. If it comes, I hope it is a good thing. I am concerned about something so potentially dangerous, mostly due to the gross lack of integrity I see in our country in the last few years. The govt. can tell folks who they have to hire, integrity or not. And, I won’t even go into what I think of the integrity of government. I know there still is some, but I do not think that it rules anymore. That is so sad. Just reading some of the awful things folks sometimes say to one another and about one another, in the comments section here and elsewhere reinforces my concern. Where are all the knowledgable workers in a nuclear plant going to come from?
I was told by my dad who hasn’t sold, my uncle who fell for it and regrets it, and the manager of the campground some untrue statements by the representative of Gulf Power. 1) If you don’t sell now, you will get ‘nothing’ later via eminent domain 2) there is some special bedrock there needed for the construction of the plant (interesting how the studies haven’t been conducted, and how the condos at the beach haven’t sunk into the gulf) 3) the creek water is special. My family has been here for generations, and does not want to sell. I ought to buy tape recorders for these folks that have faced harrasment for a couple of years now. I know that the representative will deny all of this, but I believe my dad, uncle, and manager of the campground. The campground has operated since 1968 and is host to special needs kids, the red cross, and many local churches. There is not another place like it in Escambia County or anywhere.
This link shows unemployment over the United States fron Jan 2007 – Dec 2009.
Everyone needs jobs.
http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html
anydaynow;
The scrubbers just take it out of the smoke going into the air and put it in the solid waste they dump in holding ponds or back into the ground. Nothing like direct injection of mercury and other toxins into the ground water. But the smoke still has it own brew of gases going up; just the heavy metals taken out.
Coal plants are nasty and a direct cause of the dying trees in the Smoky Mountains. Anyone been there in the last few years and seen the dying trees.
At least with nuclear plants there is stricter procedures, a greater awareness of the spent fuel’s dangers and better processes for containing it.
EMD……Solar power is only good for half a day when the sun shines. Wind power works best when the wind blows. Wind mills would work best along the coast and you know that never going to happen. But I’m no expert on any of it, just want to see some good paying jobs and a better future for all.
Big B making whitepunks day
REGARDING:
“What is wrong with solar power or wind power?”
STILL, WINDLESS DAYS AND NIGHT TIME FOR STARTERS
EMD, I worked in Nuclear power plants for almost 20 years. I worked in BWR or Boiling water Reactors and PWR’s Pressurized water Reactors. TVA has some reactor with different achitectures, I stand by what I said. They are the safest industry in the US. All safety precautions are taken while working from a normal point of view and any work related to the reactor or controls is far more than cautious. To the point of being painful at times because a small work task is scrutinized. Those guys in the control room are Nuclear experts. Well trained and well educated. They take no crap from maintenance or operators or Engineers. They work in an Island in total control. Southern company has a reputation and they will bring in some of the best Shift Supervisors in the country.
I used to travel the country working in those plants just trying to envision what it would be like to have a much better than average pay check at home. This power plant will be blessing to the county and locals with the money they bring in. Donations to hospitals, fire departments, You will need hotels, resturants to accomodate.
John Bryan
David HG,
Thank you, but I just don’t feel comfortable with this. What is wrong with solar power or wind power?
“Who would the workers be? Who here knows anything about such things in this community? Whoever works in such a place should at least know what they are doing.”
With the retired and former military that we have here, we may have enough experienced nukes. And I am sure GP would be doing training extensively.
REGARDING:
“NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS sometimes experience MELT DOWN. Does anyone really want to take that chance? ”
Nuclear plants are designed to melt down in case of loss of coolant. It kills the reaction by bringing the Uranium 235 below critical mass. The only time it ever happened that I can think of is Three Mile Island. They had a partial meltdown and containment of the radioactive material.
It shouldn’t have happened but the design covered human error. Engineers have to work with what is available and plan for people doing stupid things. This is safer than assuming they will never make mistakes.
Contrast it with Chernobyl in which The Soviet Union used graphite moderator design reactors and then intentionally drained the coolant to see what it would do. High heat and lots of carbon caused a graphite fire which spread radioactive material far and wide. (Communist governments don’t plan ahead well. They did not design a meltdown to protect them.)
David favoring liquid sodium breeder reactors
REGARDING:
“could they possibly damn the river for a even bigger lake?”
Why would they want to curse a river?
Oh, you mean put a dam across the river. The simplest reason not to would be the decades of environmental studies involved in doing so–any of which could halt the entire process forever, the thousands of acres more land they would have to buy if they intended to flood them, and the fact that they would not need a lake in the first place.
REGARDING:
“this map is not accurate….they own much more land than this. i drive down cox road all the time and there are a lot more signs on land than what is represented here. ”
What kind of signs? If the signs say they are for sale, that means Gulf Power hs NOT bought them and likely doesn’t want to buy them.
REGARDING:
“I have close friends that live near the campgrounds who have been approached to sell their land that has been in their family for generations. It is the only home they have ever known and in my opinion you can’t put a price tag on that!!!”
Rejoice. There is no reason to be sad. Just because they want some land does not mean they have to have your favorite pieces. I’m told there are still people owning pieces of land near the Crist plant who didn’t want to sell. Many of them wish now that they had, but nobody made them sell and Gulf Power finally built around them.
David glad to see John here
I hope they go with solar or wind or something. ANYTHING but nuclear. NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS sometimes experience MELT DOWN. Does anyone really want to take that chance? I hope that they will not put one of those here. Who would the workers be? Who here knows anything about such things in this community? Whoever works in such a place should at least know what they are doing. I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, HATE this idea. I wish “WE THE PEOPLE” GOT TO VOTE ON THINGS THAT AFFECT “OUR” LIVES. The love of money IS the root of all evil. This time, I only read one comment, and it did not affect my opinion. I did not read the rest. I am just commenting from what I read in the story. I honestly do not know the intent of the ones who are doing this, but I know that money is usually the bottom line in the world WE have made out of the perfect world God gave us.
Chemo nurses and doctors mixing chemotheraphy drugs are exposed to toxic drugs that can give you cancer. That is why they are supposed to have exhaust fans to make the cocktail mixes. Mining for Uraninum gives you cancer. The sun gives you skin cancer allegedly so do tanning beds, flying in aircraft exposes you to radiation, so do clay brick. Paper mills are linked to Parkerson’s disease. Pulp Mills have fly ash, chlorine on dangerous levels black liquor and caustic run off to the rivers and they stink. My dad worked in a paper mill his entire life and died of Parkensens disease, along with many of his friends. The Pcola sewer system overflows and runs sewage in the bay. Farmers make dust and spray chemicals that seep back in to the water table. Insulators are exposed to all types of dust some carcinogenic . Electric transformers have carcinogens in them. Crop dusters stand a good chance of getting cancer. Yet they are all around and still no complaints. Creosote plants contaminate the water table and everything around. The jets are dumping fuel on our heads everyday. Rockets or missiles travel over the panhandle routinely in experiments with the military. What about the drinking water and chlorine? No sir coal isn’t that bad of a deal. But Gulf Power will not build another coal plant here even though it still provides more payback than some of the other industries with no more harm to the environment or people with the new technologies than any other source. They are buying enough land to put a Nuke on.
All the oil field workers are happy to have their jobs along with all the paper mill workers, and the crop dusters and the farmers and all of the other industries and the Navy and Air Force are doing their experiments and I don’t have a problem with that. GO USA. No don’t start crying about Gulf Power now. Look for the benefits and maybe you might be able to reopen a hospital or clinic, or a new resturant or grocery store, or bring othe types of quality of life to the area ie jobs or,.. keep yourself or kids in the area with a decent paying job so everyone doesn’t have to leave the job desolate home of Century or Bluff Springs, Byrnville, yes Flomaton and the football rival JAY!
John Bryan.
Saddened,
It is true that you cannot put a price on land that has been in families for generations. There are some of us willing to sell that live in Bratt, but we seem to be outside the area that GP is looking at.
There is a lot more land owned or bought out than what they have published…I have close friends that live near the campgrounds who have been approached to sell their land that has been in their family for generations. It is the only home they have ever known and in my opinion you can’t put a price tag on that!!!
Darryl, GP tells us that the Crist plant doesn’t pollute with the new scrubbers.
Can’t make everyone happy all the time. If and I said if..they do build a Nuclear power plant. That will bring jobs, homes, improved roads. Once it’s built new subdivisions will pop up, more people in the area will bring more stores to the area. Better phone and Internet service and those much improved roads we need in the north end.
I know that people who want the country living to stay like it is will be upset. But if you don’t want your children or grandchildren to have good jobs and a better future. Then fight it. Someone else will just end up with the power plant. Alabama may want the jobs more than we do.
Coal fired plants are not benign, but the other options, being far from perfect, are viable alternatives.
Looking at alternative energy sources sounds interesting. Will Gulf Power be looking at land in Bratt between Highway 99, Highway 4 and Pine Barren Road? We do need to look for growth in the north end especially growth that provides jobs, and benefits.
well said, John B .
I have never seen so many misgivings and misrepresentations. After all the years of Papermills, and pulp mills, Petroleum sulphur and H2S,seperator plants, Refineries with runoff and injection wells pumping chemincal waste into the ground. Any of the above power plant options will provide a good income to the employees and increase the tax base for the county. For years petroleum products have been injected and or spilled into the ground water. Many of these chemicals have no known antedote if ingested or absorbed into the skin and you people are complaining about a benign power plant. These are not chemical plants, or DOD Bomb plants with enriching salts and Radioactive solutions being spilled into nearby creeks. The new scrubbers on coal plants make them a very favorable and clean industry to have near by. The Nuclear plants are the safest industry in the US. If Gulf Power decides to put in Combined Cycle units these are gas fired Turbines making heat for steam turbines using natural gas. It doesn’t get any cleaner than that. They are not like the rail cars with toxic chemicals driving by your house and occasioinally derailing causing evacuations that you do not complain about. They are not barges filled with Toxic waste.
If you want to see the area thrive you should embrace the possibility of some type power plant being erected in the area and quit living in fear and rumors. North Escambia is dying and shrinking. Our children are leaving as soon as they graduate to go get a job because there is nothing in the area to support them. NO high paying jobs at all. No tax base and no economy equals HIGH crime.
JOBS Everbody wants to cry cancer, the bay is dirty half of you on here has never had a job. This is why Century is poor. Don’t look at the bad things.
Let’s get real people. Cancer causing power lines,cancer causing spray planes,cancer causing exhaust emissions, Everything causes cancer in the eyes of the ill informed. There are places that the paranoid people can go and not have to worry about all these modern conveniences that make our lives so good on a daily basis like Washington State,Montana,Idaho, and a few more, but everyone has to go some way so lets enjoy the good life for the few short years that we have here on this wonderful oasis.
With unemployment rates continuing to rise in Florida, mainly because Florida wants to be a tourism state and not welcome any kind of manufacturing or production plants, I am for Gulf Power trying to build a plant here. Alabama and Mississippi are continuing to grow because they are investing in new companies and providing jobs. With all the regulations of the DEP and EPA, this plant–if built–is going to have to be built by certain guidelines.
I suppose these concerns from our residents is more reason to remain alert and to know the real truth regarding Gulf Powers plans. We have a right to be educated. We need to know how it will affect the health of our people and environment. Land may be cheap, but our overall health is not.
Nuclear or maybe natural gas. Stay as far away as you can from coal, unless you like to have this list in your area:
# Generation of hundreds of millions of tons of waste products, including fly ash, bottom ash, flue gas desulfurization sludge, that contain mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and other heavy metals
# Acid rain from high sulfur coal
# Interference with groundwater and water table levels
# Contamination of land and waterways and destruction of homes from fly ash spills such as Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill
# Impact of water use on flows of rivers and consequential impact on other land-uses
# Dust nuisance
# Subsidence above tunnels, sometimes damaging infrastructure
# Coal-fired power plants without effective fly ash capture are one of the largest sources of human-caused background radiation exposure
# Coal-fired power plants shorten nearly 24,000 lives a year in the United States, including 2,800 from lung cancer[32]
# Coal-fired power plants emit mercury, selenium, and arsenic which are harmful to human health and the environment[33]
this map is not accurate….they own much more land than this. i drive down cox road all the time and there are alot more signs on land than what is represented here. also the statement that “eminent domain could be a last option” should be paid attention to. the purchase of the land at the river and close to the lake should open peoples eyes to what they are planning. could they possibly damn the river for a even bigger lake?
Have all of y’all that live around McDavid, Molino, Walnut Hill, Century thought about all of those cancer causing high voltage power lines that will run out of that place? There goes your view and your health..