One less ugliness.

"An unmistakable landmark, the plant’s five short smokestacks identified the Alexandria riverfront as much as the George Washington Masonic Memorial does from a hill near the King Street Metro station. Those stacks also pushed untold tons of air pollution into the skies over the District, Maryland and Virginia, marking the plant as the largest single source of air pollution in the Washington region. Almost 15,000 tons of coal remain in a pile outside the facility, enough to fuel the electrical generating engines for five days. But as of midnight Sunday, the 63-year-old coal-fired power plant will permanently shut down. The end came more than a decade after two citizens discovered the extent of the health hazard from the fine particulates that settled out of the smoke and into the lungs of people who live, work and play nearby. Working on their own and slowly picking up support from neighbors, environmental groups and local, state and federal officials, Elizabeth Chimento and Poul Hertel relied on scientific studies and persistence in the face of multiple setbacks. "  Washpost

---------------------

And now for something different...

The election is boring.  Politicians are boring.  More bombs in Iraq, etc.

This coal fired electric plant is finally going, going, gone.  The company insists of course that citizen political action had nothing to do with their decision to take their remaining coal use allotments somewhere else.  I have been to a few of the interminable meetings in which GenOn tried to use federal and state bureaucrats to shut down citizen opposition to the existence of the plant.  For ten years the citizens struggled endlessly against this ugly, ugly thing on fair Alexandria's waterfront.  Will some other commuiity have this inflicted on them by GenOn in their search for the "next dollar?  For sure, but here in the home town of George Washington and Robert Lee we can only try to save ourselves.  Now the internal struggle in the town will shift to what might be made of the land once the "warts" are gone.  IMO the vendu local politicians will try to enable another hotel for their developer "friends" and campaign fund contributors,  The two parties compete for developer favors.  Well, that does not always determine events here.  Civic activism is to Alexandria as high school football is to Texas.  A decade ago my sainted wife led a coalition of the willing to victory to prevent erection of blocks of rental flats where the parking lot now is at the King Street Metro station.  At the time some people told me that "they" would be back and would win.  I don't see any buildings there, and now the tasteful re-development of the area around the square is done and there is no visual space for the apartment buildings.  A change of zoning would be needed now as it was then.  300 peple gathered then in the city council chambers for the climactic meeting.  It went on for five hours and the insurgentos won.  Before that spectacular event, the local developer who wanted to build on the parking lot had the gall to tell my wife that she should not oppose his wishes because the project would make his family rich for "generations."  His brother told me that we "little people' did not have a chance.  Hmmm.

BTW Claude Devereux's story came to an end in the coal port yard that is now under the electric plant.  pl  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/genon-power-plant-in-alexandria-is-set-to-close/2012/09/29/daa355ea-08d7-11e2-858a-5311df86ab04_story.html

 

Comments

[YT]

Ah, Col.

Your Erin Brokovich moment, I presume?

[JMH]

Plutocrats are relentless; it's nice to know that there are still upper middle class pockets of resistance such as Old Town that still remain. The big boys would love to take the place over, but they don't want to live in the attached small dwellings of our beloved shire. Mcmansions in Mclean for them. Let it be so.

[turcopolier]

YT

Nothing as vulgar as that. pl

[turcopolier]

JMH

Old Town (the district by the river) is not as significant a part of "the resistance" as it once was. Opposition to the "plutocrats" is quite active and general in most of Alexandria. pl

[turcopolier]

YT

This "moment" started in 1950 and the struggle over land use and building acceptability has been continuous since then. pl

[Fred]

That's a coalition of the willing I can support! GenOn is a wholesale power generator,they don't care about the local community at all, only the bottom line. Given a $2.53 share price that's not so hot since the financial collapse. I wonder how much they were involved in Cheney's still secret energy policy task force?

[John Minnerath]

Congratulations for success in the long fought battle. Sometimes the people win.
Here in Wyoming we suffer a plague of gigantic coal fired plants. The so called "mine mouth" variety, built right at the coal source.
The major percentage of their electricity being exported to power hungry cities beyond our state.
While for home consumption we rely on older, more expensive, smaller plants.

[YT]

Aye, sir.

One of the unfortunate things 'bout Corporate America....

[Bobo]

Ugly is always in the eye of the beholder. The shutting in of coal fired plants is a no brainer today with the low natural gas prices. But ten years from today that may not be the case as the other big polluter in the area (the one with a white dome) is furiously writing bills to allow the export of natural gas via LNG liquification facilities. With world prices presently 4 to 1 over US prices the export of natural gas will even that up over time putting King Coal back as the fuel of choice.

Thus per the above I can only urge the good citizens of Old Town not to rush the gentrification of their waterfront as power plants will always be needed. Possibly a few dozen windmills, some solar panels, bio massing of the old coal pits and a new paint job on the old plant may help.

I know, I'm whistling in the wind.

[Michael]

Viva los insurgentos!!

Some developers in Gwinnett County, GA are trying a similar end-around with property they bought around a taxpayer-funded stadium. The developer is seeking a zoning change from commercial/hotel development (that they intended 4 years ago) to high density single dwelling housing with zero lot lines. Thankfully, the County Commission is not letting the developers off the particularly barbed hook of their own making.

[Jose]

I normally do not like to meddle in other people's affairs, but look at what Toronto did with their old power plant:

http://www.thepowerplant.org/

If you could connect all those parks you could do something really nice:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/

That is one beautiful city, wish our politicians were not cheaper by the dozen. LMAO

Best of luck!!!!

[turcopolier]

Jose

To hell with that! This thing will be flattened. I can hardly wait. Toronto can do what it wants. We don't want Ferris wheels and casinos in Alexandria. pl

[turcopolier]

bobo. Nah! Ugly is ugly is ugly. We don't have economic problems in this town. We don't have unemployment problems. None of the electricity from this plant EVER came to Virginia. It was a colonialist power plant that sent all its product to that cess pool across the river while spewing its poison in our air. Washington needs the electricity? Much of the city of Washington is a blighted slum. Dynamite, bulldozers and 10 ton dump trucks will clear a space for the new plant. Better yet put it beyond the horizon in Maryland. It is a joke that the Chamber of Commerce here is continuously whining about "discouraged developers" in Alexandria. I have spies in city hall. The developers are fighting each other for a chance to meet our standards. pl

[confusedponderer]

Good riddance to that monstrosity. Looks aside, it was 63 years old? I bet there have been precious few modernisations in that period - after all every emission filter is a cut into the dividends of shareholders and the bonus of a CEO.

Unless you force companies to do that, by public pressure and/or (enforced) legislation, they won't invest in such things. I don't know about the Dems, but certainly in the Republican party, there are precious few politicos who look at landscape and nature not with them as a cultural goods in mind, but who are merely seeing their market value. Witness the modern day barbarians.

Some time back I moved out of my old flat, and I had an excess table and an excess built-in cooker. The table was just a simple grey kitchen table, like the one that my grandmother has had. I didn't need it any more - there just was no space for it in my new flat. It had worked splendidly, to the extent tables do, for thirty years and, by the looks of it, it would do for another thirty. The cooker was still ok but 'long in the tooth' and also something I didn't need. I took both out on the street. I wanted to load them on a truck that I had rented to move it to a collection centre. I went back into my flat for a few minutes because there was something else that I had to take care of.

When I returned scavengers had been at the scene. Where they came from, I don't know, and how they came so fast I don't know either. One of them obviously had been out for the scrap metal. He wanted the cooker. In order to get it he had smashed the table to use one the legs as a club. With the table leg he then had broken out the cooker. It couldn't have taken him much longer than two minutes. He left me with the trashed remains and hurried away with his prize on his bike, to sell it for a couple Euros. I could see him driving away when I returned.

I was, and am still, furious at the needless waste and wanton destruction. The scavenger must obviously have been poor, but more importantly, to me he was a bloody barbarian.

Many CEO's are not better in any way. They only happen to have more money and a better educations. They may wear pinstripes, but, by mentality, they are barbarians all the same. IMO Mitt Romney is such a barbarian.

[The Twisted Genius]

Good riddance indeed. I worked in Alexandria for ten years, including several on the waterfront practically in the shadow of that monstrosity. I always thought it was PEPCO's way of saying screw you to our side of the Potomac. I took the train from Quantico to the Alexandria Station every morning. In addition to witnessing some beautiful sunrises over the Potomac, I always passed the Possum Point Power Plant just north of Quantico. At least that plant converted from coal to natural gas and oil in 2003... and its power goes to Virginia

[Alba Etie]

Col Lang
"Think globally act locally " .

[turcopolier]

Alba Etie

That is kind of a local tradition. This town is filled with worldly people who are not easily intimidated by bureaucrats and businessmen. Lots and lots of lawyers and senior federal government officials. pl

[Alba Etie]

Col Lang
As is Austin, Texas and the surrounding Hill Country . I sent you an email off line - re veteran employment , did you see it yet ?

[Alba Etie]

Air pollution does have a cost associated with it as well .
We may recall once upon the conservative GOP valued clean air . President Richard Nixon started the EPA .

[Michael Moore]

Col. Lang,

Why did she oppose the apartments at the Metro station (besides the developer being an asshole)? That's the best place to put dense, mixed-use development.

Best,
Michael Moore

[turcopolier]

michael moore

Because we don't want to live in an ugly city. If we listened to people who want to put maximum density next to subway stations we would live in a very ugly city, a place you would not want to live in. Well, maybe you would... pl

[Michael Moore]

Col. Lang,

Actually, I do want to live in an "ugly" city. A nice vibrant place where I can walk everywhere and don't need to drive to do every little chore and errand. BTW, I'm not a car-hater. I like having a car for road trips, etc.

Another question: why on earth did they build the subway out into what is apparently the suburbs? That sounds like a terrible ROI.

Best,
Michael

[turcopolier]

Michael Moore

Your description of your dream home is very like central Alexandria, except that it is beautiful and we are going to keep it that way. Metrorail is a system built to bring suburban commuters to Washington, D.C. pl

[Michael Moore]

Col. Lang,

I've never been to central Alexandria, but it sounds nice. But Metrorail sounds like an at grade commuter rail system -- I thought it was described as a subway in your original post? That's a bit different, although I still maintain that it makes sense to allow denser development around stations like that. The additional riders help pay for the system (and takes some of the burden off the taxpayer).

Best,
Michael

[turcopolier]

michael moore

Metrorail runs below ground in the central parts of the system but above ground farther out as in alexandria. the system extends well beyond Alexandria as it does across the river. Metrorail has no shortage of passengers and runs at a profit. WMATA as a whole runs in the red because the bus system that is part of WMATA runs heavily in the red because of "featherbedding" that is politically enforced by the transportation unions centered in Washington, DC. pl