South Dakota
Articles
Public Forum on the Impacts of Big Stone II
The wind blows free and clean across the South Dakota - Minnesota border; while the cost of burning more coal comes not only in dollars and cents it comes at the expense of our health and environment. Already, the fish in Big Stone Lake contain mercury poison.
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Office of Environmental Protection and Honor the Earth sponsored a public forum on Big Stone II at Agency Village, March 10, which included a presentation by Mary Jo Stueve, Big Stone II Rising Risk, Lowered Water (pdf, 555kb) - what Otter Tail Power does not want you to know.
Reconvene The Boundary Waters Commission
The South Dakota – Minnesota Boundary Waters Commission needs to reconvene now. Big Stone Lake is at risk from the water demands of the proposed Big Stone II coal plant. If Big Stone II gets built and we have a dry winter with little or no spring rain we could see a three-foot drop in Big Stone Lake levels. As many know, the lake is already very shallow with an average depth of only eight feet. In this worst case scenario, almost half of the lake levels could be gone to help burn more dirty coal...read full article
Otter Tail Power not forthcoming on water issues. Clean Water Action has petitioned for additional Big Stone II hearing saying public deserves to know the truth.
New Breed in South Dakota—Water Hogs
When will we develop the clean energy resources we have at hand and start to grow the South Dakotan economy for and with South Dakotans, using South Dakota resources responsibly?
Elk Point's recently revealed Gorilla project (oil refinery) and Otter Tail's Big Stone II (630 MW coal plant) have a lot in common. Both need massive amounts of water to operate. In the case of BSII double for back up just in case of a sustained drought, imagine that.
Never mind the predictions related to global warming, of temperature rise, flood and drought extremes and vanishing wetlands via which South Dakota aquifers and rivers and lakes recharge. Never mind those experts who say that South Dakota, indeed the whole West, cannot expect to regain levels and flows once viewed as standard and fluctuating within an expected range. Never mind that we need water to live or that the Missouri River drips along at times, its waters mismanaged, drained and diverted in ways unwise.
After all, both these projects provide economic gain, right?
But who will pay when South Dakota farmers, and irrigators, and cities and townspeople need to find new water and dig new wells because the new breed of water hogs, the Gorilla and BSII, received state sanction to come in and drain our resources dry.
The plans for Big Stone II call for using billions of gallons of water. This threatens Big Stone Lake and takes us in the wrong direction.
We should, instead, be using clean, abundant, renewable energy to meet our needs -- avoiding damage to our air and water. We need to send a clear message that investing in dirty coal is not the answer.
Current Campaigns
Supporting citizen efforts to protect water resources, promoting sound solid waste management, pushing for agriculture policies that strengthen rural communities and working for a transition to clean renewable energy.
South Dakotans want to be part of the solution, not the problem, to gain economically, environmentally by developing wind power. Wind power, South Dakota's unlimited natural resource, carbon-dioxide free, requires no water - preserves a drought-stressed resource for irrigation, livestock, fishing and public use, at the same time taking advantage of the exponential increase in market demand for clean energy.
Wind power...South Dakota's new specialty crop
Why Wind Makes Sense
Demand for new generating capacity in South Dakota is estimated to be 20 to 40 MW per year for the next 10 to 15 years (SDEIA, Nov 2006, Electric Industry Interviews, Schulte Associates LLC).
Community based wind development and renewable energy could easily meet this demand, and be up and running before the proposed Big Stone II, benefiting South Dakotan farmers, local entrepreneurs and Native tribes.
Learn more about wind power in South Dakota...
Site of Big Stone II, the proposed 630 MW coal plant to be located adjacent to Big Stone Plant Unit 1 and Northern Lights Ethanol, all within site of beautiful, recreational, walleye producing Big Stone Lake on the South Dakota Minnesota border.
Big Stone II
Why go with more coal when we have wind?
South Dakota should not have its water drained or its land filled with toxic coal combustion waste just to export more power to the east. Wind power does not require water. It does not pollute like coal. And once the turbines are up the fuel is free! Future generations will thank us for making wise decisions now.
Contact your Representatives and Governor Rounds Let them know that you want wind and not more coal. Let's grow the South Dakotan economy for and with South Dakotans, using South Dakota resources responsibly.
Learn more about Big Stone II...
Worsening Water Quality
Our office has received numerous calls from citizens concerned about worsening water quality for lakes and rivers across the state. Sad to say, many of the water bodies in South Dakota remain untested, not monitored and unprotected from polluted run off and toxic industrial waste and from mining by-products, both West River and East. For example, see the interactive Toxic Release Inventory for Big Stone Plant Unit 1 (pdf).
Your Opportunity to Protect and Restore South Dakota Waters!
The Integrated Reporting (IR) and Listing Decision Concerning Clean Water Act Sections 303(d), 305(b), and 314 for all 56 States and Territories are to be submitted by April 1, 2008 - see U.S. EPA October 12, 2006 Memorandum. We will assist and coordinate CWA members and other group efforts in this process. Contact our office for 1) contact people in your area-or volunteer to be the contact person, 2) information on how to submit and have your water concerns included in the IR, or 3) information on how to nominate a water body as an OSRW (Outstanding State Resource Waters) pursuant to SDCL 1-26-13.
From the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, Steve Wegman sends us this message:
It's a New Year and let's start off by helping with Change A Light program!
The PUC is looking for more people who want to save money and energy by changing at least one incandescent light bulb in their home or office to an energy efficient model, like a compact fluorescent light (CFL).
If each South Dakota household changes one light bulb to a CFL, every year we would:
- Save $1.1 million.
- Save enough energy to light all of the bulbs in Pierre for 480 days.
- Keep 5,600 tons of coal from being burned.
The commitment is easy. Send your friends, neighbors, relatives, paper carriers and pet groomers to the Energy Star web site for more information.
Here, they will simply enter their name, e-mail address (optional), ZIP code and the number of bulbs they will change this year. Or, you can go to our Web site and click on the "South Dakota Change A Light Pledge" link in the center of the home page to get to the pledge form.
Thanks to all of you who have already pledged and for passing the good word on to others to pledge.
Take Action! Voice Your Opinion!
Our comment to the SD PUC While every bit helps, and we all MUST do our part and use resources more wisely, the expected annual use for Big Stone II, the proposed 600 MW coal plant permitted by the PUC last summer, is 2.9 million tons of additional coal per year with a maximum use of 3.3 million tons per year! Otter Tail 10 year plan (pdf), 2006. Does this make any sense?
Send your comments to the SD PUC on their new, easy to use electronic filing page! Except in cases of weekends or holidays, the PUC will notify you within 24 hours of receiving your message. Use the general information or non-docketed submission links.
You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader properly installed to view PDF documents. You can get it free from Adobe.
