Mariposa Energy Center’s Paula Zagfecki talks with Mountain House Community Service District member Jim Lamb, in shorts, as she answers questions on the tour to the proposed power plant site. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press
The money will be used to counteract anticipated air pollution by replacing or “retrofitting” diesel engines to run with cleaner fuels, said Dave Warner of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
He said a majority of the expected pollutants are gases like nitrous oxides, which would add to the smog already affecting the area.
Warner said the plant would be a peaker plant, which on average only operates about 600 hours per year to fill in power needs during highest demand, usually in the summer time.
The site is seven miles northeast of Tracy and 2.5 miles west of Mountain House, just over the county line in Alameda County. Mariposa Energy hopes to win permission to start construction in April 2011.
Contact a Tracy Press reporter or editor at 835-3030 or tpnews@tracypress.com.
Gulp!!!
I can't believe these people. There should be a law that doesn't permit these plants from building within 15 to 25 miles from residential areas. If people want to move into an area with existing power plants, that's their fault / problem, but don't go building this garbage where people already live and can't move.