Actually it’s a Trout Lake resident and my clients’ website that’s in the news:

www.mncoalgasplant.com

Web site addresses Excelsior Energy issues

Last Updated: Friday, April 21st, 2006 04:10:28 PM


Editor:

In regards to a coal gasification plant proposed for our area: I just discovered, thanks to my local alert township supervisor, that there is and has been for quite some time, a Web site on the Internet concerning this plant. Some of the items on the Web site www.mncoalgasplant.com are as follows:

Section IV, Page 9: Mesaba One and Two would require 192 acres of someone else’s property, excluding construction and laydown areas.

Section IV, Page 12 shows Excelsior’s preferred natural gas route, completely across the middle of Trout Lake Township, and a power line from about the middle of Trout Lake Township north to Taconite.

Section IV, Page 14: Excelsior’s option agreement allows the company to purchase mineral rights on up to 500 acres of the property on which the power generation plant would be located.

Section IV, Pages 63 & 64 lists the residual chemicals and their amounts that will be discharged into the receiving bodies of water.

Section IV, Page 106: If the East Range site were used instead of the Taconite location, they would have used a zero discharge system for process and cooling water because of the stringent water quality criteria standards implemented in the Lake Superior Basin Watershed. The mercury content in the Cliffs Pitts is too high.

Section IV, Page 124: MESABA ONE is predicted, according to a study commissioned by Excelsior, to cause 1.5 fewer deaths due to downwind particulate exposure in Minnesota and 6.4 fewer deaths in the United States as a whole compared to the Alternative SCPC Plant. Project emissions are associated with approximately 3.0 fewer cases of PM 2.5 (particulate matter) associated with acute bronchitis and 2.4 fewer emergency room visits for asthma per year than the Alternative SCPC Plant. This information comes under the heading of “Health Benefits.”

Bob Norgord
Bovey

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