MINUTES
of the
POTRERO POWER PLANT CITIZENS ADVISORY TASK FORCE
Thursday, November 29, 2001
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 106
1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL
The meeting was called to order by Chair Philip DeAndrade at 4:10 p.m.
Present: Sara Ames Philip DeAndrade
Bob Boileau Babette Drefke
Joe Boss Richard Millet
Absent: John Borg Claude Wilson
3. REPORT FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE
Ms. Jackie Minor, Deputy City Attorney, announced the dates of the community meetings scheduled to present the City energy plan.
Ms. Minor: Federal EPA required to promulgate new set of regulations that would govern the construction of intake systems that would cool power plants. New regs have been issued. It appears that they will prohibit any new plants that intake more than two million gallons of water per day from a bay or estuary. Based on that, it suggests that the plant, as proposed by Mirant, would not be approved. If that is the case, significant redesign of the plant would be required. Potrero Power Plant
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November 29, 2001
This is the first phase of the new regulations, and they are intended to apply to new facilities. There has always been a question whether Unit 7 is a new facility. It is clear that the new regulations do not apply to Unit 3. City believes that they will apply to Unit 7 because it is an independent stand-alone unit.
Scheduling process: the CEC schedule has been revised; the new schedule indicates the staff will issue the FSA January 18, 2002. BCDC has asked for additional information from Mirant which was due on November 30th.
Other points of concerns relate to biological issues.
4. BCDC AND PORT OF SAN FRANCISCO: STATUS OF NEGOTIATIONS
Mr. Mark Paez, Port of San Francisco: re negotiations with Mirant; Port originally set up a schedule for negotiating the use agreements; Mirant disputed the reimbursement schedule (amount sought by Port from Mirant), thus no agreement signed and process blocked.
Port Commission is about to schedule an informational public hearing for the project sponsor to provide an overview of what the project includes; is scheduled for January 8th.
Port needs to revisit open space and public access issues. Port has disagreements re mitigations. BCDC wants Mirant to provide $300k for removal of Pier 70 wharf. Port says it will cost $700k.
5. BRAINSTORMING MANDATORY MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Mr. Millet: would like to see mitigation funds spent on design of the plant, to make it the best plant possible so that it does the least damage to the community.
Ms. Drefke: since the Potrero is host to the power plant, the neighborhood should benefit in some way; consequently believes Mirant should put aside funds each month to spend on putting the overhead utility wires underground; start in the center of the neighborhood and spread out throughout the neighborhood.
Mr. Boss: would like to see the rehabilitation of Scott School, leased by the Omega Boys Club for $1.00 per year; is the oldest school building in Sfand on the list of historic
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November 29, 2001
buildings; since historic structures will be demolished to build out the power plant, the renovation of this building would be an appropriate use of mitigation funds. Would also like to see overhead utility undergrounded in Dogpatch.
Ms. Ames: would like to see funding for new health clinics or additional funding for existing health clinics for illnesses related to power plant types of pollution; funding for health education programs within the neighborhood schools that would mitigate negative health effects on children in neighborhoods; school programs; diesel conversion of buses open space, green areas, tree plantings to combat pollution.
Mr. Boileau: inappropriate to talk about mitigations; should talk about plant itself, whether necessary, if necessary, whether it should be built at this level; likes idea of undergrounding, but that alone is not enough; we should be concerned about plant itself.
Mr. DeAndrade: does not necessarily disagree with Mr. Boileau; perhaps there could be some fee for every megawatt hour that goes outside the City; Mirant might be required to provide funds to green the City, to help with alternative power generation
Mr. Millet: Bayview green areas not maintained; perhaps funds should be expended to maintain those area.
Richard Lee, Department of Public Health: City departments have been meeting to discuss mitigations; DPH would provide funds to Dept. of the Environment Clean Air program for lower emission vehicles. Asthma programs could help fund programs in the schools to improve indoor air quality, mold and carpet cleaning.
Deputy City Attorney Minor will forward list of the City’s mitigation meetings to the Task Force.
Mr. Boileau: would like to see minimum standards for operations developed for the City’s discussions with Mirant. This would be different from mitigations. Minimum standards might result in a smaller plant
5. REPORT TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Mr. Greg Asay of Supervisor Maxwell’s office reported that the Board passed legislation extending the life of the Task Force for one year until December 1, 2002. All of the Task Force members appointments have expired and they will have to be renewed.
Potrero Power Plant
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November 29, 2001
Applications must be made to the Board of Supervisors and will be heard by the Rules Committee.
Mr. Asay also reported that Claude Wilson would like to remain on the Task Force but cannot attend meetings that begin before 6:00 p.m. Mr. De Andrade stated that he would defer discussion of meeting times until the full Task Force could be present
6. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
The minutes for the meetings of September 26th and October 24th were approved as written.
7. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:20 p.m.
