Residents of Wilmington Object to DWP Proposal

Residents uneasy about Wilmington’s image as the industrial center of Los Angeles reacted with suspicion Tuesday night to a proposal to revamp the Department of Water and Power’s Harbor Generating Station.

Under the proposal, two of the Wilmington plant’s five steam turbine generators that burn fuel oil will be replaced with generators that burn cleaner and more efficient natural gas. Some of the heat produced will be used to run the three remaining turbines.

Residents Tuesday expressed outrage about the proposed use of sulfuric acid and ammonia, which are considered hazardous, for water purification at the plant. Some voiced a feeling of injustice.

“The bottom line is, other communities have better political clout than we do. It looks like, in fact, we will be producing the power here, and suffering the effects, so others get more power,” said Peter Mendoza, president of Wilmington Home Owners.

DWP proposed the project to cut down on emissions of nitrogen oxide, as required by recently tightened air quality regulations. Department officials say the new system would reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide substantially, even though the plant will be used more.

Project manager John Schumann said the “repowering” will enable the 41-year-old station to produce a greater proportion of the power that DWP produces in the Los Angeles Basin.

The Harbor Generating Station is one of four DWP power plants in the basin, which provide about 20% of the power for the greater Los Angeles area. The remaining 80% is brought in via transmission lines from as far away as Oregon or Washington.

“When we are done, we will have one of the cleanest and most fuel-efficient plants in the country,” Schumann told about 40 residents at Tuesday’s meeting, which centered on a draft of an environmental report on the project.

Despite assurances from a battery of department officials and consultants that the new plant would be safe and beneficial, Wilmington residents Tuesday drilled the officials about the effects of storing and transporting hazardous chemicals for use at the site.

“You may be doing the world a favor by cleaning up the pollution, but what you fail to cover is that the hazardous materials you are bringing in are a danger to us,” said resident Tony Kay.

Although DWP officials said the toxic chemicals would be used only in self-contained systems, Schumann acknowledged that tanker trucks would have to travel on local streets to deliver them. According to the draft report, up to 60,000 gallons of liquid ammonia could be stored in two tanks at the plant.

The toxic materials “will present potential adverse effects to human health and safety due to the long-term risk associated with the storage of hazardous materials,” the environmental report stated. To be approved, however, the project would require a safety clearance from the Los Angeles Fire Department, Schumann said.

Because it is old and relatively inefficient, the Harbor station has been used only sporadically--an average of 2 1/2 hours a day annually--to back up other parts of the system during inclement weather and other emergencies, Schumann said. According to the draft environmental review, the revamped station will operate about 12 to 14 hours a day, five days a week.

Increased use of the Wilmington plant would allow DWP to scale back operations at its three other plants. In effect, that would reduce total emissions from those sites, allowing them to comply with new air-pollution standards.

Schumann said total emissions at the Wilmington plant would be reduced by more than half. If approved, the $150-million renovation could begin by late this year and be completed by 1993.

Some residents Tuesday questioned other aspects of the proposal, such as traffic generated by its construction and its possible effects on a long-sought commercial revitalization zone on nearby Avalon Boulevard. But of all the complaints, the most common was frustration at Wilmington’s image as the junkyard and industry capital of Los Angeles.

“We may be paranoid, but just look at what we have now in Wilmington,” said Mendoza. “Are we supposed to be happy about this?”