LITTLE ROCK — A 32-year-old Southwestern Electric Power Co. coalfired power plant near Gentry does not seem to have damaged an adjacent wildlife area, the former director of Audubon Arkansas testified under cross-examination in a federal case Tuesday.
But Audubon Arkansas believes that construction and operation of SWEPCO’s 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County could damage a nearby wildlife area, said Kenneth Smith, who directed Audubon Arkansas until March.
The Hempstead County Hunting Club, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, Audubon Arkansas and several individuals sued SWEPCO and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in two lawsuits, asking for an injunction to stop construction of SWEPCO’s $2.1 billion coalfired plant, which is about one-third complete.
The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, but because judges in that district recused themselves, the cases are being held in Little Rock before Judge Bill Wilson of the state’s Eastern District.
Grassy Lake, part of 18,000 acres near the site of SWEPCO’s John W. Turk Jr. plant in Hempstead County, is home to many rare species, including bald eagles, terns, alligators and mussels, Smith said. Audubon Arkansas designated Grassy Lake, owned by Hempstead County Hunting Club and other clubs, as an Important Bird Area in 2007, the same year SWEPCO received approval from the Arkansas Public Service Commission to build the plant.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously in May that the commission erred in approving construction of the plant and sent the case back to the commission.
In June, SWEPCO said it would run the Turk plant as a “merchant plant,” which makes it exempt under Arkansas law from needing commission approval.
Audubon Arkansas did not proceed in designating Grassy Lake as an Important Bird Area until it received funding from Randy Wilbourn, Smith said.
Wilbourn owns land in the Grassy Lake area. Smith attended a tour of Grassy Lake in 2007 when Wilbourn was one of the guides on an examination of the area during the permitting phase of the plant.
The area around SWEPCO’s Flint Creek coal plant near Gentry also has been designated an Important Bird Area, Smith said. It is home to bald eagles, herons and egrets and also has gulls, which are not found at Grassy Lake, Smith said.
David Matthews, a SWEPCO attorney, asked Smith what harm construction of the Hempstead County plant has had on the ecosystem at Grassy Lake.
Matthews asked Smith if he had seen fewer birds, alligators or fish at Grassy Lake since SWEPCO began construction two years ago.
“Not that I can document,” Smith said.
The trial is scheduled to continue today and conclude Friday.
Business, Pages 25 on 09/22/2010