CP&L Eyes 2nd Site For Plant

BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

From the edge of his back yard off Parks Road, Walter Shoaf can see the pasture where Carolina Power and Light may build five natural gas-fired turbine generators, 100-foot smoke stacks and all.

But it's not the futuristic view that worries Shoaf. It's the noise.

His back yard near Cleveland already hums with industrial sounds floating across a mile of woodland from the KoSa (formerly Hoechst Celanese) fiber plant across U.S. 70. You might say Shoaf is curious how an electric power plant sounds from only a quarter of a mile away.

He may soon find out. After giving up one Rowan site, CP&L is looking at a second tract - 367 acres bordered by U.S. 70, Parks and Godbey roads and N.C. 801. Officials call the site, which has industrial zoning, their top choice for a proposed $200-million ''peaking plant'' that would provide more than 1,000 megawatts of power during high demand.

''I'd like to hear one run before I decide whether I'd like it or not,'' Shoaf, a 33-year-old Freightliner employee, said Wednesday, minutes after learning that the utility is eyeing the farmland property behind his home. ''If it ain't no louder than that Celanese plant is right now, I could handle that. For 200 million invested in the county - sure.''

In November, residents along U.S. 601 north of Salisbury bullied CP&L into abandoning similar plans for a power plant on a smaller piece of land wedged between the highway and Deals Creek. Angry that utility officials never bothered to consult them before announcing its plans, upset that the plant was too close to their neighborhoods, residents swore to battle the plant at rezoning hearings.

CP&L backed off - and apparently learned a lesson.

''Yeah, I think we did learn a lot of things, not only about picking a site, but about announcing a site,'' CP&L spokesman Mike Hughes said Wednesday.

Try, try again

Despite the controversy, CP&L engineers kept up the search for a new site. Ironically, some of the same residents who waged war against the U.S. 601 site wound up encouraging company representatives to keep looking in Rowan County. County officials estimated the other, slightly larger plant would have provided the county with $1 million in tax revenues.

''What folks told us after our initial announcement in Rowan County was 'You need to look elsewhere in the county - there are a lot of good sites in the county that are zoned industrial,''' Hughes said. ''That's what we did.''

Sort of. CP&L also looked in other counties, eventually culling the prospects to a Richmond County tract and the Powlas family property off U.S. 70.

CP&L's plans for expansion include seven jet-like turbine units, but they don't all have to go on one site. In a written press release the company promised a decision in 30 to 40 days. When asked about a possible price for the Powlas tract, Hughes had no comment.

However, Hughes said a likely scenario entails CP&L building two units on the Richmond County site and five on the Rowan County site.

The Rowan County site offered CP&L a good reason to build five generators here: easy access to needed raw materials and a convenient way to move its product to market.

Each unit represents an investment of about $40 million.

Duke Power's high-voltage transmission system - those steel structures towering in a line across the countryside - and the Transco gas pipeline both run near the U.S. 70 tract. The pipeline is the largest available source of natural gas in the state, Hughes said.

CP&L needs such industrial firepower to boost its production capacity from about 10,000 megawatts to 14,000 megawatts by 2007. A seven-unit peaking plant could add about 1,200 of those megawatts, Hughes said.

CP&L provides power to about 1.2 millions customer accounts, or about 3.75 million people, Hughes said. During the extreme hot of summer and cold of winter, this pool of customers can push CP&L's power plants to their maximum, he said.

Hughes predicted turbines at such a ''peaking plant'' would run about 10 percent of the time or about 1,000 hours per year. A CP&L computer that checks customer demand every four seconds of every day would determine when the plant's engines would spark.

New, improved

CP&L's apparent plans for the tract off U.S. 70 differ significantly from its abandoned proposal for the land off U.S. 601:

nThe new site is zoned industrial; the former was rural residential. CP&L still must win development approval from county commissioners, but at least it can skip potentially disastrous rezoning hearings.

nAt 367 acres, the new site is bigger than the last, so the plant is farther removed from residents and can offer larger buffer zones. Someone lives about 400 feet from where the company wanted to build off U.S. 601; the nearest neighbor - possibly Shoaf - is about 1,300 feet away.

In general, not as many people live near the U.S. 70 site.

nCP&L planned to build all seven of its desired units on the U.S. 601 site. Plans delivered to the Post newsroom by CP&L engineer Jerry Letchworth show only five on the U.S. 70 tract.

nCP&L is trying to avoid shocking the public this time around. Letchworth said the company on Tuesday mailed letters explaining the plans to nearby residents. Shoaf had not received his by Wednesday afternoon.

The company also plans to hold a ''community meeting'' sometime in March for residents to ask questions about the project.

Hearing is believing

''I don't know,'' Shoaf said, shaking his head outside in his yard. ''They say it's a peak-time plant, but you're going to invest $200 million in a plant and only run it 10 percent of the time?''

Since moving his family into their one-story, aluminum-sided home five years ago, Shoaf has known that one day he may have an industrial neighbor. Many who live nearby apparently know the tract is zoned industrial, Shoaf said, and many expected the Powlas family to sell it to a large company.

Gene Myers, a 53-year-old engine mechanic and burgeoning developer who owns 175 acres at the rear of the U.S. 70 tract, also saw it coming. He's been through this before. In 1987, he and hundreds of other west Rowan residents protested plans to install a hazardous waste disposal facility on the Powlas tract.

During the 1987 protests, Myers donned a Confederate uniform and claims to have fired a number of rounds from a muzzleloader to ''get the attention'' of state officials.

Although Myers stopped short of condemning CP&L's plans - he was most impressed by their use of natural gas, a ''clean fuel'' - he said he won't back away from a fight to save the 100-lot development called Falcon Crest he's struggling to get off the ground.

''That's what I'm selling: country, pristine, wildlife... I've gone into this thing deep enough. I'm not going to back out now,'' he explained during a break from working on a motor in front of his garage. ''If they can't control the noise, they can go somewhere else, 'cause they ain't building it here.

''If these people can come in here and build a nice, clean, quiet plant out there, then that would be great.''

Myers, who has not built any homes yet, is not sure yet if he'll take on CP&L. He wants to make an unannounced visit to a similar plant - the closest CP&L peaking plant is in Darlington.

''That's what I'll do when I decide to take up this vendetta - if I ever do,'' he declared. ''We'll get a group of guys together, and we'll just traipse on down there one day and see what kind of community it is.''

Hughes, CP&L's spokesman, says two people can stand directly beside a unit in Darlington and hold a conversation without yelling.

''I can state to you that we do not expect sound to be an issue,'' Hughes said, adding later that ''from 1,300 feet, I would not anticipate it would have any effect on an outdoor conversation.''

However, there is one noise concern Hughes could not settle. Plans for the seven units off U.S. 601 included what Hughes called ''silencing technology.'' He said Thursday that CP&L has not decided whether to include such technology on the five units off U.S. 70.

Shoaf, for his part, seemed to look for the bright side.

''I'd rather have a power plant than a chemical plant, I guess.''