Power Plant Plan Worries Neighbors

On Hula Circle in Huntington Beach, families have tried to live with their two very different neighbors. They live steps from the Pacific Ocean but next door to the mechanical shrieks and foul smells of the massive AES Corp. power plant.

But California’s power crisis is rapidly unhinging life in the neighborhood of ranch houses and bungalows.

State regulators will decide next week whether to allow the company to double the plant’s operations by July, providing much-needed electricity but taking what residents fear will be a heavy toll on them.

It’s one of several proposals to restart or build new power plants in the wake of the power crisis using a “fast track” process that allows the projects to go forward before environmental and pollution studies are completed.

“The plant is so close. We want to know if it is impacting our kids in ways we won’t know about until 10 years from now,” said Janette Mortimer, who lives with her husband and their two young children in one of the homes closest to the plant.

Already, residents say, the AES plant is casting a mightier shadow. There are the ear-ringing rumbles and roars. There are the mysterious plumes of smoke that waft over the neighborhood. Then there is the grime that seems never to go away.

If the California Energy Commission approves the permit for AES, the facility could run at full capacity for the first time in memory. Officials said the plant’s previous owner, Southern California Edison, typically ran it at 30% of capacity.

AES could be allowed to run the four gas-fired boilers and a “peaker” unit whenever California hits a Stage 3 alert--which is expected to happen often this summer. The “peaker” plant alone is powered by eight jet engines--and sounds like it.

Currently, only two boilers are operating.

But residents say they are most worried about the air they breathe and the water they swim in.

Under the fast-tracking process designed to get more electricity for the state as soon as possible, several key environmental questions have yet to be studied.

Scientists studying the cause of ocean pollution that closed much of Huntington Beach’s shoreline in the summer of 1999 said that the plant, along with other factors, played a role by drawing partially treated sewage that is discharged miles offshore back toward the coast.

AES Inc. will pay $1.5 million to further study the issue, but the research won’t be complete for some time.

“So much is uncertain,” said Huntington Beach Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff. “These are big, big things.”

For now, residents say they are bracing for more noise, smoke and disruption.

To begin with, AES’ proposal calls for 20 hours a day of nonstop construction to get the two mothballed generators in service by July.

Then there are the sizzling summer temperatures. Residents usually open their windows to let the ocean breezes cool their homes. But the noise and smells from the plants may make that impossible.

“It’s going to be bad. There’s no escape,” said Bryan Visnoski.

The plant has towered over the Huntington Beach coastline for nearly 40 years. The housing tracts came later, but most inhabitants of Hula Circle and surrounding streets seemed to make peace with their industrial neighbor.

Some have installed double-paned windows to dampen the sound. Others have remodeled their homes to obstruct ugly views. The Mortimers grew tall trees and trained vines past the windows.

The problems, they say, began with the energy crisis.

The plant was owned by Edison until 1998, when it was sold to AES--California’s largest private electricity producer--at the dawn of deregulation.

The two gas-fired boilers that AES wants to restart have been dormant since 1995 and were slated for demolition until the power crisis struck.

But a few months ago as rolling blackouts hit the state, Gov. Gray Davis signed an executive order allowing “peaker plants” to operate at extended hours. “Peaker plants” can produce electricity in quick bursts but guzzle large amounts of natural gas and are noisy.

Hula Circle residents said the order has resulted in more hours of loud jet noises that make them feel like they live by an airport.

Whenever the peaker plant goes on, residents call the Air Quality Management District to send someone to test the plume of smoke. The inspections have not detected any violations.

The proposal before the state Energy Commission would allow AES to double its electricity output in Huntington Beach from 500 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts.

The company’s two 40-year-old units represent about 10% of the 5,000 additional megawatts Davis has promised to meet an expected energy shortfall this summer.

Despite the fast-tracking process, the company has vowed that it would safeguard against environmental damage and remedy any problems from plant operations.

If the plant is identified as drawing bacteria back to shore, AES would have to pay the costs deemed necessary to fix problems.

This is little consolation to residents, who would prefer a full environmental review.

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Smokestack Flak

Residents of one neighborhood in the shadow of the AES power plant in Huntington Beach fear more noise, smoke and grime if the plant is permitted to run at full capacity.