EDWARDSPORT — How much is it going to cost us? How will it smell? What kind of noise will it make?
Those were the questions Duke Energy attempted to answer Thursday about the company’s new coal-gasification power plant.
Duke invited the plant’s “neighbors” to the meeting to talk about what they might expect to hear, see, smell, among other things, as the plant prepares to go online during the fall of next year.
Plant manager Jack Stultz and Doug Esamann, president of Duke Energy Indiana, also took questions from the audience and a tour of the plant site was offered.
Stultz, Esamann and at least some in the crowd were pleased with the how the meeting went.
“I think it’s good to have these meetings because everybody’s concerned about what’s going to happen here and everything,” said Dennis Kahre, who lives between Edwardsport and Westphalia. “I think it was an informative meeting.”
“I was very pleased with it,” said Jim Moore of Westphalia. “(Stultz) answered some questions that I thought were right. I’ve heard some after comments about it, but with the information he had in front of him and what he knows now — I’m sure down the line the people will get a better answer later.”
Stultz said the meeting went exactly as he hoped it would.
“I thought the meeting went real well,” Esamann said. “The idea is to have people come in and ask any questions they want to ask and we do our best to answer them with the information we have and what we know.”
When asked about plans in case any kind of emergency occurs once the plant is online, Stultz said they are working with the emergency management coordinators from both Knox and Daviess counties to make sure they meet required safety measures.
They are also putting together a safety plan to be distributed to residents near the plant who would be affected if an accident occurred.
Stultz said the plant will not be manufacturing gas until the beginning of January 2012, and they hope to provide the safety plans to residents by Jan. 1.
Stultz said they will also work with the 911 dispatchers in the area so they can notify residents in case of an emergency.
Another audience member expressed concern about the combination of school buses and coal trucks that will be passing through Edwardsport once school begins next month.
Stultz responded by saying he would get in contact with Terri Roesler, the transportation director at the North Knox School Corp., to work out a plan to limit the chances the trucks and the school buses are in the area at the same time. Most of the plant’s coal will be transported via train, however.
Multiple residents asked what kind of noise they should expect from the plant.
When gas is burned in a flare on the site residents will experience a louder noise than usual, Stultz said, but for the most part the noise will be similar to that of other industrial sites.
“It won’t be perfectly quiet. I’ll tell you that,” he said of the flare. “It should be the exception rather than the rule.”
Safety relief valves may also create noise similar to what the same valves made at the old Edwardsport plant, Stultz added.
He also said passersby will likely experience two smells on occasion when near the plant — that of ammonia and sulfur.
Esamann responded to the question about how the new plant will ultimately affect the wallets of Duke customers.
He said the decision will be up to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, adding that the overall rate increase will likely be 16 to 19 percent.
Although pleased with the meeting, Stultz said he expects many more questions down the road as Duke plans to host similar informational meetings in the future.
“There were a lot of different questions from the floor about a lot of different topics related to the plant from costs to just neighbor relations,” he said. “I think we eased some thoughts for some people, probably caused some thinking for some people and we’ll continue to talk with them and try to keep them informed in areas that are important to them.”
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