Friday, May 12, 2006
Dominion wants to put $800 million plant in Wise Co.
The latest from The Ticker blog
Richmond-based Dominion, a power company, chose a Wise County site Thursday for an $800 million plant that could be the biggest economic development ever in Southwest Virginia.
"This probably comes close to doubling the net worth of Wise County," said John Peace, a county supervisor and member of the Virginia Coalfields Economic Development Authority.
The project still faces a lengthy environmental review process as several government agencies review its effects on air quality, nearby streams, roads and other potential issues.
Plenty of available water was one factor that helped Dominion choose Wise County, Peace said, along with nearby rail service, the U.S. 58 highway and "one of the lowest tax rates in Virginia."
Peace said he was certain the clean-burning, coal-fired plant would be "the largest economic development project in Southwest Virginia history."
"It's a big job maker," he said. The company predicted 800 construction jobs, 75 permanent jobs once the plant is complete, and 250 coal-mining jobs to keep it supplied with fuel.
Environmental activists have been uneasy about prospects for the plant since 2004 when state Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, successfully proposed a bill to let Dominion search through Southwest Virginia for a place to build a coal-fired plant.
Dominion said the plant will have the cleanest coal technology, a circulating fluidized bed burner that can use waste coal, wood and other fuels in a way that reduces emissions of sulfur, nitrogen oxides, mercury and particulates.
The jobs Peace envisioned would be a sharp turnaround for Wise County, where the biggest developments in recent years have been two maximum-security prisons.
The estimated population of Wise County last year was 42,000, the Census Bureau says, up about 1,800 from five years earlier.
That was better than the county's trend in the late 1980s when the coal industry was in a recession, Peace said.
"I saw half my high school leave" the county because of job layoffs, Peace said.
