Green Jersey

Opinion: Sparta’s “green” power project isn’t

by Scott Olson

Sparta’s proposed $2 billion “green” hydroelectric power plant — the one local papers have been buzzing about recently — is actually a case of greenwashing.

I found out this week that Riverbank Sparta, LLC filed its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for their underground hydroelectric plant in the Limecrest Quarry last month. Upon reading the details, I would like to share my insight and concern.

This application reveals more bad news for my neighbors. There will be new 500-kilovolt lines added along a new route from the quarry to a substation in Newton, then along the existing “Susquehanna-Roseland” corridor to the new, proposed Jefferson Township substation. (Click here for the map of routing.)

There are so many issues, I hardly know where to start. Yet another 500-kilovolt line crammed into the 150-foot-wide Susquehanna-Roseland corridor through Andover and Byram/Lake Mohawk? A stretch with one 230- and two 500-kilovolt lines through densely developed residential neighborhoods? This is unheard of — and frightening.

The project would ravage Sparta’s natural resources and is being subsidized by taxpayers who were led to believe that the quarry was purchased, with their tax dollars, to preserve the vast supply of clean water in the aquifer below it — protecting that area from development.

In an August 30, 2007 Star-Ledger article, Mayor Michael Spekhardt is said to have “read a statement Tuesday that said ‘The purpose is to acquire a tremendous natural resource for the residents of Sparta. That’s pretty much it.’ …Yesterday, in a telephone interview, Spekhardt clarified that he was referring to the site’s water and open space as the purpose of the acquisition.”

And from an August 31, 2007 New Jersey Herald article: “‘This is a long-term thing,’ Spekhardt said Thursday. ‘The statement I made at the meeting, that’s why we’re doing this — acquiring the water and the open space.’ …The council ‘felt it was important, obviously’ to obtain the water source, which Spekhardt said has been rated highly among state environmental studies.”

On September 7, 2007, the Sparta Independent reported: “Lake Grinnell resident and association officer John Naisby deplored the ‘lack of transparency’ the council had displayed in not justifying the purchase to the taxpayers, and charged the mayor and council with ‘doing whatever they like without regard to the people of Sparta.’” Ouch. Enough said.

Let’s look at just what they are doing with this precious natural resource. The underground caverns for the plant’s “reservoir” — with a capacity of 1.23 billion gallons of water — will be 90 feet wide by 150 feet tall and run for 14,018 linear feet (about 2.65 miles). Millions of tons of rock will be mined from that quarry — about 15.9 million tons of rock just for the underground storage chambers alone — not including the rest of the underground operations areas. How will all this underground disturbance affect the incredible natural resources of the Germany Flats aquifer?

According to the book “Aggregates” by Mick R. Smith, L. Collis and P. G. Fookes, published by the Geological Society, a typical quarry outputs 500,000 to 1 million tons annually. A proposed quarry in Medina County, Texas that is purported to be the largest quarry in Texas, will at its peak of operation produce only 5 to 8 million tons annually. This material in the Riverbank Sparta project will be blasted relentlessly from nearly half a mile below the community, then brought to the surface… and then what? Where will nearly 16 million tons of granite go? And how? By train? By truck? What impact will all this blasting, crushing and transport activity have on the adjoining semi-rural residential neighborhoods? On our already crowded local roads? Where will all this rock be crushed and stored? These questions need to be asked and answered.

Did the Sparta Council and Riverbank Sparta forget to mention that reversing the turbines and pumping the water up at night uses significantly more energy than is created by the water falling through the shafts?

According to the Electricity Storage Association, “Pumped hydro is available at almost any scale with discharge times ranging from several hours to a few days. Their efficiency is in the 70% to 85% range.”

An article on Wikipedia states this method of power generation “…stores energy in the form of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost off-peak electric power is used to run the pumps. …Although the losses of the pumping process makes the plant a net consumer of energy overall, the system increases revenue by selling more electricity during periods of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest.”

Where does the power to run the pumps at night come from? Dirty coal plants “upwind” and west of here. And it’s brought in by a new 500-kilovolt line that will connect the Susquehanna-Roseland lines directly to the new proposed power plant. This is not renewable energy. It is a simple, inefficient storage method for dirty coal energy that creates a huge revenue increase during peak power demand — yet another greed-driven project.

This project, like the PSE&G Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line, flies in the face of the recent New Jersey Energy Master Plan.

The bottom line? This project is not green. This is an energy Ponzi scheme – a net energy loser. The 1000 megawatts this plant generates will require 1150 to 1300 megawatts to pump out the underground reservoir and replenish the upper reservoir in off-peak hours.

Given the billion of dollars to be spent on this and other projects in our area, we should demand true, clean renewable energy projects. Not “faux-green” schemes that rob our resources and threaten our energy future.

Guest contributor Scott Olson is a Byram Township councilman. He maintains a web page with links and information on PSE&G’s Susquehanna-Roseland Project at northbyram.org/routeb/.

More: Critics say proposed Sparta plant not renewable energy (New Jersey Herald)

A green deal for Sparta (Sparta Independent)