Crossposted from CBF’s Blog.
I recently drove down to the blackwater swamps of southern Virginia to witness a tale of two cities. Many residents of tiny, rural Dendron (population, 300) see their community’s economic salvation in the construction of a coal-fired power plant. But others are deeply worried about the health impacts of toxic mercury pollution and microscopic soot particles. Down the road from Dendron, the town of Clover, Virginia, tried a similar path to renaissance 17 years ago — and learned a sobering lesson.
I started my journey in Dendron, located about 50 miles west Norfolk, Virginia. Once the home of a booming lumber mill, today the only remaining business in town is Bailey’s Convenient Mart. The signs out front proclaim “Mountain Dew” and “God Loves You.”
“There is nothing here right now — no stores, no playgrounds, no entertainment for our kids,” said Fred Moore, a longtime area resident, as he leaned against an out-of-service pump out front of Bailey’s. “If you even want to get gas for your lawn mower, you got to go 10 miles either way. But change is coming with the power plant. This could bring in a lot of people.”
The Dendron Town Council in February approved a rezoning that will allow the construction of a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant
The proposal has bitterly divided the community, with dozens of yard signs proclaiming “No Coal Plant!” facing off against signs reading “Power Station Yes!”
Betsy Shepard is so worried about potential damage to the health of her children that she said her family may move away if the plant is built.
“I have small children, and I know that they are in a particularly high risk group, so I am very concerned about their health,” said Shepard, who lives outside of Dendron in Surry County. She said that microscopic soot particles from the plant’s smokestacks are going to pass right through her children’s lungs and into their bloodstreams. “And what this particulate matter does then is it starts to clog one’s heart, not to mention the incidences of asthma and chronic pulmonary disease.”
She is not the only one who has concluded that particulate pollution from coal-fired power plants can cause human health problems. Harvard School of Public Health Associate Professor Dr. Jonathan Levy, an expert on power plant pollution, said that particulates from the Dendron plant’s smokestacks would likely increase the number of asthma and heart attacks in people living across a wide region. “We’ve done a series of studies over the years looking at power plants in specific geographic areas and across the country. And in general we’ve found that the public health burdens are quite large
