By Donna Storter Long
MOORE HAVEN, FLORIDA -- The Glades County Board of Commissioners
today approved the announcement given by Glades County Community
Development Director Larry Hilton. Hilton announced to the Glades commission:
"Commissioners, as each of you knows, Glades County, as well as
several other counties, has been under consideration by Florida Power
& Light for a site to locate a power plant.
Glades County has been working with Florida Power & Light since the
first of February in a joint effort to locate the power plant within
Glades County. We have had several pre-application meetings with a
number of consultants and FPL staff. They identified two sites
within Glades County that meet all of their criteria. Last Friday I
received an application for site plan approval from Golder and
Associates as agent for Florida Power & Light to locate a power plant
in Glades County.
This power plant represents an investment in Glades County of over
three billion dollars, of which $2.6 billion will be taxable. The
advanced technology pollution control equipment is not taxable. It
will take several years before it will generate power. When the
plant becomes operational in 2012, it will begin paying property
taxes to Glades County and the Glades County School District. The
taxes from this plant are estimated to average $20 million per year
for the next forty years.
The technology that will be used at this plant is called "ultra-super
critical pulverized coal fired electrical generation". There is no
power plant in the United States currently operating using this
technology. It is currently in use in Japan and Germany. It is so
efficient that it requires 20% less coal to produce the same amount
of electricity. It is extremely environmentally friendly. The
ambient air quality in Glade will not exceed 10% of the National
Ambient Air Quality standards established by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency. There will be NO operational
discharge into the surface waters of Glades County and NO
deterioration of surface or groundwater supply sources. In fact,
even storm water will be stored on site for use in generating electricity.
Benefits to Glades County, besides the taxes, will include the
employment of 1600 workers that it will require to construct the
plant, which is a five year project. When the plant is in operation,
it will employee approximately 180 people, with an average salary of
$60,000 each. The location that Florida Power and Light has selected
is a 4900 acres parcel that is currently used by Lykes Brothers to
grow sugar cane, located about a mile west of SR78 behind the Glades
County Road Department. his site meets all the requirements of the
Glades County Land Development Regulations and the Glades County
Comprehensive Plan. The plans have been reviewed by county staff and
no major issues have been identified.
Approval by Glades County is only the first approval that FPL must
obtain. The Public Service Commissioner and the State Power Plant
Siting Board (which is the Governor and his Cabinet) must also
approve the location. This process is expected to take about 18
months. in an effort to show support from Glades County to both the
Public Service Commission and the State Power Plant Siting Board,
(County Attorney) Mr. Pringle has prepared a resolution for you to
consider adopting."
Glades County Commissioners gave their unanimous approval and support
and Chairman Jones signed the Resolution after Mr. Pringle read it
into the record.
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