Environmental groups to host panel on PurGen project

MIDDLETOWN — The N.J. Chapter of the Sierra Club and a group of other environmental organizations will host a panel discussion to explore the impact of a proposal for a coal-fired power plant that includes plans to store liquid carbon dioxide beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

According to a press release from the local chapter, the panel will address concerns that the PurGen project, an experimental coal-fired power plant proposed in Linden on the banks of the Arthur Kill, will increase air pollution in the metropolitan area and will leak carbon (CO2) emissions into the increasingly acidic Atlantic Ocean.

The panel discussion, which is open to the public, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 24, at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 1475 W. Front St., Lincroft.

PurGen will use experimental technology to store carbon dioxide under the seabed. Residents and community groups are concerned about safety, health and environmental risks posed by the plant, according to the press release.

The Jersey Shore Group (Monmouth) of Sierra is hosting the event. Co-sponsoring groups include the New Jersey Friends of Clearwater, the Loantaka (Union) and Ocean County Groups of Sierra, NY/NJ Baykeeper, Clean Ocean Action, the American Littoral Society, the Surfrider Foundation, and other organizations. Other environmental organizations that have been critical of the plant include the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the New Jersey Environmental Lobby, Environment New Jersey, and the Edison Wetlands Association.

The $5 billion, 750-megawatt power plant, to be located on the Arthur Kill, would burn 2.5 million tons of coal a year. About 60 percent of its electrical output would be sold to a power supplier for distribution, a press release from the local Sierra chapter release states. The remaining 40 percent would be used for two purposes: to generate 1.3 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer a year and to pump each year about 5 to 10 million tons of pressurized, liquid CO2 through a 138-mile pipe from the plant into the Atlantic Ocean, where the CO2 would, presumably, be stored forever beneath the ocean floor.

According to the press release, environmentalists are concerned that the plant will damage an already polluted environment. They claim that the CO2 storage technique — to store the CO2 about 6,600 feet below the Atlantic seafloor — has been tested for only 10 years and could let the CO2 leak into the Atlantic, which is increasingly acidic due to CO2 gases that they say are causing global warming.

The environmental groups also are concerned that the coal plant would worsen the already polluted air quality in densely populated New Jersey and New York, whose air quality fails to meet minimum health standards. They also question the idea of manufacturing reactive nitrogen fertilizer on the site, since scientists claim the runoff of reactive fertilizers has been contributing to “dead zones” in the oceans.

For additional information on concerns relating to the proposal, visit www.stoppurgencoalplant. org.