MINUTES
of the
POWER PLANT TASK FORCE
Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 4:00 p.m.
City Hall, Room 408
San Francisco, CA
1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order at 4:20 p.m.
Present:
John Borg John Kosinsky
Joe Boss Toby Levy
Philip DeAndrade Richard Millet
Absent:
Dana Lanza, Steven Moss, Karen Pierce
2. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting of March 24, 2005 were approved as corrected.
3. REPORT FROM CITY ATTORNEY RE CONDITIONS FOR REOPENING OF SHUTTERED POWER PLANTS
Regarding the Potrero Power Plant, Deputy City Attorney Joe Como reported that under the RMR contract, if Mirant stops operation within six months of terminating the RMR contract and remains closed, or not operating for 36 months, then it is entitled to recover
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Minutes
May 26, 2005
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the unreimbursable costs. If Mirant reopens after 36 months or just continues operating, whether it operates is an economic decision; we would not be able to force Mirant to stop operating at that point. Removing the RMR contract does not require Mirant to shut down.
Mr. Boss: according to Ms. Cleary at Mirant, if Mirant gets the refund, it will have to reapply to operate. If the money is taken back, it would mean that Mirant has to shut the plant down. Ms. Cleary said that the refund would be approximately $25 to $28 million. Mirant has hired consultants to do highest, best-use analysis of the property to determine how much money it could make by dismantling the unit and selling the property. Mr. Boss asked that the SFPUC to give an estimate how much natural gas and/or electricity has to cost before a 300MW plant is profitable.
4. DEPARTMENT REPORTS RE AIR QUALITY MONITORING
Russell Stepp, PUC: Puc has, under contract, a subconsultant to the PUC environmental consultant who is prepared to get the four PM10 monitors requested by the Task Force in place; PUC has been working with four City departments to place the monitors on four locations—the Malcolm X Academy School, Southeast Facility roof, Woods MUNI Yard Carpenter Shop roof and Potrero Hill Rec Center roof. One additional unit will go to the Arkansas Street monitoring station. Hoping to get units operating in next few weeks.
5. TASK FORCE POSITION RE SITING OF POTRERO CTs, OFFSETS AND MITIGATIONS
Members worked out wording for the final resolution. Mr. Borg moved that the resolution as finalized at this meeting be voted on at the next meeting in the community. Seconded by Ms. Levy, motion passed unanimously.
6. PLAN FOR COMMUNITY MEETING ON THURSDAY, JUNE 16th AT POTRERO NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE
Plans for the community meeting were discussed.
7. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
in-City plants. Fourteen different transmission projects are under way by PG&E and the City must complete the CT projects to secure the removal of the RMR contract for Potrero #3. Looking at summer, 2007 for decommissioning RMR for removal beginning 2008.
With the three CTs, we will utilize the best available control strategy which is the requirement for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, we will interconnect to the Potrero Power Plant substation, and will take off natural gas on Illinois Street. Onsite, there will be a recycled water plant for non-potable process water. Site is four acres, and largest structure will be the 85-foot stack; present Potrero stack is 280 feet high.
Gary Rubenstein, Sierra Research and air quality consultant for the CT project: spoke about what types of pollutants formed by power plants, how they are formed, what the impacts of the peaker project are and how they compare to the state and federal air quality standards.
The analyses that Sierra Research have done show that the health impacts for the energy reliability project is well below any significance levels established for all pollutants under any weather conditions at any location under any operating conditions. Analyses indicate that the project is not going to exceed any of the health base significance levels. Nonetheless, the City is committed to mitigating any impacts in Hunters Point and Bayview.
Ms. Kubek announced that four of the mitigations would include: high-efficiency enhanced street cleaning; wood-stove fireplace retrofits; sodding of parks and playgrounds; and vehicle scrappage. Additional community benefits are still to be defined.
Mr. Boss requested that some kind of air monitor be placed in a residential area for a month by a non-scientific person in order to assess air quality and trust the test method. Ms. Kubek stated she thought it was possible to do in a few locations for a few months. She will report back on the topic at the next meeting.
According to Ms. Kubek, PUC, DOE and DPH will be coordinating the mitigations.
4. TASK FORCE POSITION RE CTs
Chair De Andrade introduced a draft resolution for Task Force discussion that he had created with input by Mr. Borg, Mr. Boss and Deputy City Attorney Joe Como. Chair DeAndrade introduced a draft resolution for Task Force discussion that he had created
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March 24, 2005
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with Mr. Borg, Mr. Boss and Deputy City Attorney Joe Como. Mr. Millet moved to consider the resolution and Mr. Boss seconded the motion. Chair DeAndrade wants to discuss the resolution at the April meeting and vote on it at a community meeting in May.
After Task Force discussion, Chair DeAndrade would like PG&E and departments to attend next meeting to respond to members concerns; he also would like them along with Mirant to attend the community meeting.
Chair DeAndrade asked members to email suggestions, ideas to staff to include in the draft resolution.
Mr. Boss asked that the City explain what is the agreement with PG&E, what are the impacts from Cal ISO, where is the money coming from, what is the definition of decommissioning? Chair DeAndrade asked Dep. City Atty. Joe Como what would be required for the power plant units to reopen if they were shut down?
Mr. Boss: would like interface with PUC Citizen Advisory Committee, Energy Subcommittee—wants this on next agenda.
5. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
