POWER PLANT TO OPEN FOR TOUR SUN VALLEY RESIDENTS SEEK COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENTS.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

SUN VALLEY - As the Los Angeles Department of Water prepares to open its new San Fernando Valley Generating Station, Sun Valley residents are vigorously pushing for community improvements to offset the increased air pollution.

Ellen Mackey of the East Valley Coalition wants improvements like more trees planted, community gardens created on unused land under power lines, and solar panels offered to warehouse businesses in the area. Residents also want the plant to be shut down during bad air-pollution days.

``All of these things are ways of increasing the quality of life in Sun Valley, rather than continuing to dump their air pollution credits here,'' Mackey said.

Although the retooled natural gas power plant will be cleaner and more efficient than it once was, the utility plans to operate it year round, which could generate as much as 145 tons of smog-forming gases each year. That has caused concern in a community already mired in thick truck traffic and industrial polluters.

DWP officials plan to meet with residents today to tour the plant and talk about the project. They say they'll listen to community concerns but stress that the Valley plant is part of a project to cut air pollution across the Los Angeles Basin.

``A number of people have expressed concern about what's out there,'' said Randy Howard, executive assistant to general manager David Wiggs. ``There's a lack of understanding of how the plant fits into the mix.''

The Valley Generating Station is the first completed project in a $2 billion effort to modernize three DWP power plants, including the Haynes Generating Station in Long Beach and the Scattergood Generating Station in Playa del Rey. Together the projects will cut smog-forming pollutants by 80 percent.

DWP replaced all four of the Valley plant's old generating units with new, more efficient generators that are 10 times cleaner.

But for the last decade the DWP has rarely used the Valley plant. It was old, dirty and expensive to operate - and often the last resort during high energy demand, Howard said. DWP cranked up the power in 2000 during the energy crisis, prompting air regulators to order the utility to clean up its plants.

DWP plans to run the new efficient 533-megawatt plant year round. It will be in high demand its first few years of operation as DWP closes other power plants for modernization.

Smog-forming pollution from the plant will jump from 81 tons per year in 2000 to 145 tons per year.

Despite the plant's proposed impact, community residents said they knew little about the project until recently and have pushed for more information and input.

The project falls within the Sun Valley Environmental Justice Improvement Area - an initiative by Councilman Tony Cardenas to study the impact of industrial development in the community. The improvement area is not yet formally approved.

Cardenas has asked DWP to elaborate on how often the plant will run, how much pollution it will generate, how hazardous materials are stored on site, how the community will be notified if there's an emergency at the plant and how neighbors can file complaints about its operation.

Environmentalists have urged DWP to use the Valley Generating Station and similar gas power plants less and invest instead in cleaner, greener forms of electricity, such as wind and solar power.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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Valley Generating Plant