Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

How can the proposed ethanol plant affect VWC students?

Kim Cullen

kmcullen@vwc.edu

Chesapeake, Va. where many students commute from, is the proposed site of an ethanol plant called the Elizabeth River BioFuels Project.

Personally, I don’t want a toxic chemical plant in my backyard. Of course, I’m not the only one who feels this way.

This plant would be operational 24 hours a day, 350 days per year. The location of the plant would be between the Jordan Bridge and the Gilmerton Bridge. If you know anything about Chesapeake, more specifically the Deep Creek area, then you know that you cannot leave the area without crossing a bridge. The most common choice is the Gilmerton Bridge, which is already surrounded by other industrial plants. Why put another one there?

It would also be less than one mile from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and adjacent to St. Juliens Creek Naval Annex.

This plant would not only affect any student who lives near the Chesapeake/Portsmouth line, but also most of Hampton Roads because of the traffic increase.

If the plant is put in this area it will no longer take commuters from this area 20 to 30 minutes to get to Wesleyan, it would take much more than that. There is already enough traffic in this area already that I’m not willing to deal with.

Between 56 and 150 trucks a day, 350 to 1,050 trucks a week, would be traveling through Hampton Roads Highways. Train traffic will increase to six trains a week, totaling between 60 to 75 cars per train or 360 to 450 train cars per week.

The ethanol plant is supposed to be helping the environment. Well, how is bringing thousands of trucks and hundreds of trains into the area going to help the environment? It just does not make much sense, when you think about it.

With all the traffic that would be brought into the area, another cause for concern is how people will get out of the area in case of an evacuation. The surrounding neighborhoods have already been informed that if the plant has an explosion and blows, the neighborhoods would not survive; everything would blow, along with the plant. One of these neighborhoods is mine.

The evacuation plan has not yet been discussed, but the evacuation area could cover eight miles, depending on the chemicals used at the plant. This eight-mile radius will cover the neighborhoods of Cradock in Portsmouth and Brentwood in Chesapeake and will even affect neighborhoods like Geneva Shores, also in Chesapeake.

There are also approximately 18 Chesapeake schools in a 4-mile radius from the location of this plant. 13,247 students and 1,063 teachers will have to be evacuated in the event of an explosion or spill. Many are wondering how this will happen; there have been no answers to this question.

If the project is accepted, it will be the largest plant of its kind anywhere in the world. Since this plant is also large, health risks to people living nearby are a huge concern. There was a plant built much like this one in Illinois. Many citizens experienced reactions from the hazardous chemicals in the air. Some of these symptoms were burning eyes, lungs and throat. Many of the citizen experienced extreme headaches, cramps in their sides and nausea.

Of course, local citizens are concerned about how this plant would affect them with the increase in pollution and the resulting effects on their health.

The company guarantees that their processes will destroy 99 percent of the odor-causing volatile organic compounds. The only problem is that the technology that would be used at this new plant has never been used before.

This has raised many questions. If they have never used this combination of machinery before, how can they guarantee anything to the public?

Since this site is located on the already heavily polluted Elizabeth River, there are also environmental concerns regarding how the plant will affect not only the Elizabeth River but also the Chesapeake Bay. There have already been restrictions on what food can be eaten from the river due to the state of pollution, again; why add more?

The main question is, why? Look, I’m all for helping out the environment, but I’ve done the research and ethanol-powered vehicles don’t make that much of a difference. If that were the case, then maybe I would be more accepting. But honestly, this plant is not worth people’s safety and well-being.

The main reason for this plant is that the cities of Chesapeake and Portsmouth will get millions of dollars of revenue each year for allowing a company to put its plant in this area. Portsmouth is completely against it; now we are just waiting on Chesapeake to decide between our well-being and money for the city. Tough decision.