INDECK ACCEPTING COMMENTS ON PROPOSED NILES PLANT

By DEBRA HAIGHT

NILES – People still have time to comment on the proposed new Indeck Energy Services’ natural gas power plant. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials have set a Dec. 7 deadline to receive comments about Indeck’s application for an air emissions permit.
People should mail comments by Dec. 7 to Annette Switzer, Permit Section Supervisor, MDEQ, Air Quality Division, P.O. Box 30260, Lansing, MI 48909-7760. People can also comment online on Indeck Niles Permit No. 75-16 at www.deq.state.mi.us/aps/cwerp.shtml.
People can also find more detailed information about the company’s plans and the air emissions the plant will produce when it is in operation at the DEQ website. The DEQ’s Air Quality Division has made a preliminary determination that the project will not violate state or federal air quality standards.
If requested by a citizen, a public hearing on Indeck’s proposed permit will be held Dec. 14 at Northside Child Development Center, 2020 N. 5th St. in Niles. DEQ staff will be available at 6 p.m. that evening with the public hearing set for 7 p.m.
Indeck first proposed building a plant in the city’s Industrial Park more than 15 years ago but abandoned plans when market forces including rising natural gas prices made the project financially unfeasible. It was one of several natural gas plants proposed but never built back then in Southwest Michigan and northern Indiana.
With the current proposal, company officials have said they expect the nearly $1 billion plant to open in 2020. It would generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity annually, enough to power 635,000 homes. Economically, it is expected to bring hundreds of construction jobs, 21 full time jobs and $10 million in annual tax revenue to all government entities.
Indeck officials said the company is currently working with the city of Niles and nearby Howard Township to make sure all zoning and land use permits are up to date in addition to applying for the new air permit from the DEQ.
Niles City Administrator Ric Huff said Indeck came to the city with their plans about a year ago and went public with their intentions at a recent city planning commission meeting. He said he expects that the only city approval the company will need will be approval of site plans.
Similarly, Howard Township Supervisor Craig Bradfield said the zoning and land use changes the township adopted more than a decade ago are still in place. “Everything is still in place, they didn’t abandon anything, they just put it on hold,” he said.
This time around, there hasn’t been the vocal opposition to the plant as was the case 15 years ago. Howard Township resident Nelson “Sig” Slavik was a leading opponent back then and among those able to delay the project long enough to the point that it was dropped.
He said he still sees a lot of questions that have to be answered. Those questions include the amount of natural gas that would be consumed in order to generate electricity, how that would affect the market price of natural gas and how the plant’s use of large volumes of water could have adversely affect the area aquifer.