Leesburg's "Green" Power Plant: Good Idea or Will Converting Wastewater to Steam Harm our River Levels? (Chesapeake: construction, living in)

[normie]

Concerns Raised Over Green Power Plant | Loudoun Independent

Last February, Hamilton-based Green Energy Partners announced plans to build a "hybrid energy power plant" south of Leesburg. Instead of using coal, it will harness solar power, steam and natural gas to produce electricity. The design uses wastewater from Leesburg that currently goes into the Potomac (approximately 5 million gallons a day).

Fairfax Water has now sent a letter to Loudoun officials protesting this proposal. They're concerned that converting wastewater to steam could eventually alter water levels in the river since the wastewater would no longer be returned to the Potomac. Green Energy Partners argues that their system would clean the Potomac and the Chesapeake watershed.

So... what do you think? Is this power plant a good idea or a bad idea?

[SteelCityRising]

Steam is water vapor, no? Wouldn't all of that water vapor just ascend into the atmosphere and just come back down as rain at some point?

[normie]

I'm not a climatologist, but I'm guessing the Fairfax Water Authority thinks steam would be blown out over the ocean before it had a chance to fall to the ground.

Personally, I'm not to worried about water levels since the Potomac gets fed by snow pack from West Virginia. Yes, we have droughts every once in awhile. But not year after year, so the river has a chance to recover. Right now excess snow melt runs off into the river. So, my guess is if the level was lowered by the power plant, all that would happen would be less of the snow melt would run off into the ocean.

The thing that makes me wonder is... why did Fairfax Water Authority take so long to file this protest? It's been almost a year since the proposal. And I wonder why the Loudoun Water Authority isn't also protesting. Hmmmmm....

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by normie

The thing that makes me wonder is... why did Fairfax Water Authority take so long to file this protest?

Maybe because Fairfax County is California "punctual?"

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Maybe because Fairfax County is California "punctual?"

Ummmm..... what????????

[Caladium]

I know this got approved last spring. I was wondering if anyone knew if it was operational yet, or when they expect it to start operating.

[normie]

I vaguely recall reading that it would open next spring. But I haven't seen anything about it in the paper for a long time. I wonder if something happened to this project? (Or, maybe things are humming along, which makes it boring. No news is good news, as they say.)

[normie]

You know, you should contact the editor at the Loudoun Independent and see if they'll do a story on what's new with this project. That's one of the few places that still has reporters who dig up stories (as opposed to printing press releases). I'll bet they'd think it was a interesting idea for a story or at least they'd know who to contact to find out.

[ngadude]

Normie had me curious about this - I hadn't heard about it, but not living in Loudoun County I suppose it wasn't big enough news to get wide mention.

Anyway, this article from April of this year claims it still needs state and federal approvals, and is a good 18 months from construction starting, and 5 years from being operational:

Environmentally Friendlier Power Plant Gets Green Light | Loudoun Independent

Also, that article has a link to their website at http://www.loudounpower.com/ - if you look though it - one place there's a list of all the approvals they need to get - it is HUGE! All kinds of state and federal agencies in the list. It is definitely a long way off from happening, until it passes all those hurdles.

[Caladium]

Thanks, ngadude!

I knew this was a good place to ask. Our forum not only has a nice mix of people willing to be helpful, it also has such a diversity of knowledge and contacts. Anyway thanks again for finding the article. I've also seen one a little more recently than that one that said an approval had been given. But maybe that's just one of many approvals? It sounds like it's quite a process. So maybe Normie's right and it hasn't been in the news because this is a waiting period.

I'm very excited about this project (LOL can you tell?) and can't wait to see it in operation.