By Tyler Kula, from www.theobserver.ca The Observer
Eastern Power has officially decided where it will build a $360-million gas-fired electricity generating plant in St. Clair Township.
Township council approved a 100-acre site plan Monday for the south side of Oil Springs Line, between Highway 40 and Greenfield Road, said Jeff Baranek, planning co-ordinator with the township.
“So they’ll be able to get permits now,” he said.
The site is one of two locations that the company was considering for its 300-MW Greenfield South Power Corporation project.
Eastern Power officials weren’t immediately available for comment.
The plant replaces one originally planned for Mississauga, but cancelled by Ontario’s Liberal government in 2011.
That cancellation, plus the cancellation of another plant in Oakville, it was revealed Tuesday, will cost taxpayers almost $1.1 billion.
Last year, then Energy Minister Chris Bentley announced the Mississauga plant would move to St. Clair Township.
The company hopes to pour concrete before the end of the year, Baranek said, but still needs a permit from the township.
The Ministry of the Environment meanwhile is conducting a detailed, technical review of the company’s environmental permit applications, a ministry spokesperson said, making sure the plan complies with environmental standards for air emissions, noise and sewage work.
Consultations with First Nations also need to take place before any decisions are made, the spokesperson said.
Currently the site is just a field, Baranek said, meaning Eastern Power is going to have to build a force main to route waste-water to the township’s treatment plant in Courtright.
Eastern Power will also need to build a water line that connects to the Lambton Area Water Supply System (LAWSS) main on Greenfield, he said.
Consultant company Stantec has been hired to make sure downstream customers aren’t impacted, he said.
Additional servicing details will be hammered out in subsequent agreements, Baranek said.
“Generally when there’s a development like this, we have proper infrastructure already in place …,” he said. “It’s sort of a little unusual from that perspective.”
A three-metre-high berm is also planned for the site’s edge, he said, along Oil Springs Line.
The build is expected to create about 350 short-term construction jobs, and 35 permanent jobs.
The provincial government has said the coal-fired Lambton Generating Station, where 300 people work, will close at the end of this year.
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