Jackson Harper | Special to The Virginian-Pilot

Environmentalists say mining methods that use dynamite to clear trees and rocks to reach coal on mountaintops, such as this one in Wise County, Va., are ecologically dangerous.

ST. PAUL -- By any standard, it is the biggest environmental controversy in Virginia today -- a $1.8 billion, 585-megawatt power plant, proposed by the state's largest electric company, in the heart of coal country here in mountainous far Southwest Virginia.

The debate touches core issues affecting all Virginians, including global warming, fossil fuels, air quality, mercury contamination, economic development, state energy needs, jobs and social justice.

After years of protest and negotiation, the dispute is coming to a head this week, with public hearings today and Wednesday in Wise County before the state Air Pollution Control Board.

More than a thousand people are expected to turn out, which, in a county of about 40,000 people, is huge. Afterward, the state board could vote for an air-pollution permit for the facility -- the last major regulatory hurdle that the developer, Dominion Virginia Power, needs before construction can begin.

But even that would not likely end the fight because both sides are gearing up for court action. Also, Dominion still must obtain a state environmental permit for a proposed landfill, where tons of fly ash would be buried near the Clinch River, a drinking-water supply in the area.

Almost every politician and local official from the remote, financially depressed region endorses the project, expected to generate electricity for at least 50 years.

State Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, got the ball rolling with region-specific legislation in 2004.

That bill, along with an amendment in 2007, declared the plant "in the public interest" and worthy of swift development. Only Virginia coal would be burned, and all electricity produced would be for in-state customers.

In response, environmental groups have joined hands with church leaders, activists, scientists and some local residents to contest what they call an unnecessary and ecologically dangerous coal-fired project -- one that states should avoid during these transitional times toward greener energy.

"It's just wrong on so many levels," said Kathy Selvage, who helped launch an environmental group, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, in part to fight the power plant.

Her group is a member of a broader coalition, the Wise Energy for Virginia campaign, which includes the Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Appalachian Voices.

The coalition gathered more than 45,000 signatures in opposition to the plant and delivered a nearly mile-long scroll to Dominion executives at a shareholder meeting this spring in Chicago.

Trying to be green

Dominion has purchased an old log-cabin restaurant near the 1,300-acre site and turned it into a makeshift field office.

A new sign welcomes visitors to Dominion's "Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center."

Selvage scoffs at the name, describing it as a public-relations ploy.

To her and other opponents, the project would pollute the air with smog and mercury, threaten the Clinch River with fly-ash waste, perpetuate strip mining and mountaintop-removal methods and continue an age-old divide in coal country between rich and poor.

"If this is such a good deal for everyone, why do we have to pass legislation to accept it here?" asked Jaculyn Hanrahan, a fellow opponent who runs the Appalachian Office of Justice and Peace for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.

Dominion officials reject such criticism as misinformed and emotional.

They note that the plant would be built with controls to greatly limit emissions of mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot.

"This station is going to be benign," said Dan Genest, a utility spokesman in Richmond.

The facility would release about 5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year, officials concede. But they note that space is being set aside for technology that would capture such greenhouse gases and inject them into the ground, thus limiting their potential to contribute to global warming.

Such technology does not exist commercially right now, Genest said. But the company is working with Virginia Tech to develop a system and hopes to install equipment by 2018 -- six years after the plant is scheduled to open.

Powering the economy

Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who has pledged to cut greenhouse gases in Virginia, has disappointed environmentalists by supporting the plant.

He also included its development in his state energy plan, released last year. To Kaine and others, Virginia must produce more of its own power to meet growing demands for electricity, while also pursuing energy conservation and efficiency as well as green technologies.

Genest said Virginia continues to be a leading importer of electricity, compared with other states. Building a "clean coal" plant such as the one in Wise County, he said, is one way to serve more customers with minimal environmental risk.

Wise County would receive about $5 million a year in new tax revenues, or about one-eighth of the government's annual budget of about $44 million. Local services and public education would benefit most directly, County Administrator Skip Skinner said.

According to Dominion, 800 new jobs would be created to build the plant, and 75 full-time employees would be needed to operate the station.

About 2 million tons of coal would be required to stoke the boiler system each year, enough to secure another 250 mining jobs, Dominion says. Overall, the plant would net about $300 million a year for the economy, according to a Virginia Tech financial analysis.

The county has granted Dominion all its local permits. Skinner views the state air board meetings this week, and the possibility of a permit being approved, as "hopefully the last decision that needs to be made on this."

The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board does not usually involve itself so intensely in the permitting process, instead leaving that chore to the state Department of Environmental Quality.

But concerns that DEQ was crafting too weak a pollution permit, and was meeting privately with Dominion in doing so, caused environmentalists to complain and the board to intervene.

What has resulted so far is a tougher air permit. Instead of allowing Dominion to release up to 79 pounds of mercury into the sky each year, for example, the current proposal would set a 49-pound limit.

Genest said Dominion expects to see an 8-pound limit in the latest update to be released this week.

Accepting new limits

The back-and-forth nature of the permitting debate, and how ever-stricter limits are proving acceptable after all, has led environmentalists to suggest they were right all along.

"They clearly have had the ability to do better, but simply didn't want to -- until they were pushed to spend the money," said Tom Cormons, a lawyer and state director of Appalachian Voices, an environmental group.

The term "hybrid energy center" stems from Dominion's plans to burn coal, waste coal and scrap wood at Wise County. Waste coal, however, often has a higher content of mercury and other pollutants. Environmentalists say Dominion could easily use lower-sulfur coal and more sophisticated technologies.

Genest disputed such claims, saying the burning of waste coal will remove unsightly piles of unwanted slag that were mined years ago and left in local streams and wetlands.

In response to concerns from the National Forest Service over potential harm from sulfur dioxide emissions on the Linville Gorge Wilderness, Dominion has pledged to tighten its controls.

A draft air permit called for emissions of no more than 3,200 tons of sulfur dioxide per year. But, Genest said, Dominion is prepared to cut that to about 1,670 tons a year.