Jan. 23 meeting to address second proposed Charles City power plant

Officials from Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality will discuss plans for a new $1.6-billion gas-fired power plant in Charles City County not far from the Henrico County line during a meeting at Varina Library Thursday night at 6:30 pm.

The proposed Chickahominy Power Station would be the second gas-fired power plant slated for construction in Charles City, and several citizens’ groups are concerned that the plants could create unhealthy levels of pollution for the region, though DEQ officials have said that they are cleaner than coal-fired facilities.

The first plant, proposed by a Michigan company, has earned all required state permits but has not yet begun to take shape.

The Chickahominy Power Station would sit just about a mile from the first plant, but it still needs groundwater withdrawal special exception approval from the DEQ. That would allow it to withdraw a maximum of 30 million gallons of water per year (in increments of no more than 3.5 million gallons per month) for seven years, according to the DEQ.

The plant would draw water from the Potomac Aquifer, which supplies water to a large eastern swath of Virginia, until a new water line being planned by New Kent County is constructed.

The Chickahominy Power plant would produce up to 1,650 megawatts of power; the first would produce nearly 1,100 megawatts. One megawatt can power as many as 1,000 homes.

The two new plants are designed in large part to supply data centers in the state such as the one Facebook is building in Sandston.

In addition to Thursday’s meeting in Varina, the DEQ will host a public hearing about the groundwater withdrawal special exception request Jan. 28 at Charles City County High School beginning at 6:30 pm.

A 50-day public comment period about the request will end Feb. 14.

The proposed Chickahominy Power Station would be the cleanest of its type anywhere in the nation, according to the DEQ. Instead of using millions of gallons of water each day to cool its turbines, the facility would use air-cooling technology.

But the advocacy group Food and Water Watch has complained that the plant would contaminate the air with some 6.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Citizen group C5 (Concerned Citizens of Charles City County) opposes the plant and has argued that its construction, along with that of the already-approved plant, would make Charles City County one of the largest generators of air pollution in the country.