Area residents and governmental officials met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy last week and expressed their overwhelming support for the FutureGen Project, a near zero emissions power plant that may be built near Jewett.

Explanation of the project and formal comments were heard at a public scoping meeting held in Fairfield.

FutureGen is a 275-megawatt coal-fired power plant and National Energy Technology Laboratory facility that will be funded by DOE, private businesses and other countries to test electric generation with a variety of coal types and produce almost no pollution. Cost of the project is estimated at almost $1 billion.

"FutureGen will provide us with a full-size commercial platform to test things we've been thinking about," Jerry Oliver of FutureGen Alliance says.

Goal of the project is to prove the viability of coal-fired electric generation with near zero emissions by 2015, after which the prototype plant can be used as a model for construction around the world.

One of the tests that will be conducted is producing electricity from a hydrogen powered turbine---hydrogen is a byproduct of the coal gasification process planned as the primary generating method---which has not been attempted on a commercial scale.

"If you were a for-profit entity you couldn't do this," Oliver says. "FutureGen is an opportunity to share the cost and risk of zero emissions technology development."

The Jewett site, 400 acres of reclaimed land donated by NRG at its Limestone Plant generating station, is one of four locations under consideration as the location for the power plant/research facility.

DOE last month announced four finalists for the project out of a dozen potential sites. A second Texas location is near Odessa and two finalists are in Illinois. The DOE will announce its final selection in September 2007.

When competition for the project was announced in January, Freestone, Limestone and Leon counties all submitted potential sites, which were narrowed down to the Jewett and Odessa locations by the FutureGen Texas Advisory Board chaired by Railroad Commissioner Michael L. Williams.

The proposed Jewett site is unique in that it sits at the mouth of an lignite mine, a soft coal used in electric generation in the area for more than 30 years. The site also has close access to electric transmission lines, rail lines, natural gas pipelines and a location at which to dispose of carbon dioxide (CO2), a byproduct of the generation process believed to contribute to global warming.

Freestone county figures prominently into the proposal with two sites in the county targeted for CO2 sequestration. The primary location is on the east edge of the county near the Trinity River and a secondary location is between Fairfield and Butler.

DOE geologist Ian Duncan explains that the gas will be injected under pressure into brine formations more than 11,000 feet underground into Travis Peak sandstone where it will remain indefinitely. Tests also will be conducted at lesser depths in the Rodessa and Pettit limestones.

A portion of the CO2 is expected to be used for enhanced oil recovery and Duncan reports that 3-6 billion barrels of oil could be recovered in the gulf coast region of the country.

Eliminating C02 emissions is a main goal of FutureGen and project designers expect to sequester or otherwise use at least 90 percent of the gas, with a goal of eliminating 100 percent of CO2 as an emission.

Duncan believes that C02 sequestration and use could become an industry unto itself in the future.

In fact, FutureGen byproducts may spin off several ancillary businesses---captured slag/soot could be used to make cement, sulfur and hydrogen are used in manufacturing fertilizer and hydrogen is now a fuel for some vehicles.

Comments and letters from 31 state, county and city government officials, representatives of Texas A&M University and Texas State Technical College and individuals were entered into the formal comments record.

"We are talking about creating jobs, some good paying jobs in all three counties (Freestone, Limestone and Leon), and were are talking about creating good jobs without hurting our environment," Tommy Tucker of Mexia Economic Development Corporation said.

Formal presentation of the FutureGen project and comment period ran for two and one-half hours, and from comments gathered at the meeting the DOE will draft its environmental impact statement for publication in March 2007.

Public hearings on the environmental statement will be conducted in March-April 2007 for the four site finalists, the completed statement is to be published in June 2007 and FutureGen Alliance will announce its final site selection in September 2007.

Much of the budget, or at least the water supply portion, depends on negotiations underway in which the city could lease its Richland-Chambers water rights for a time. Lease payments would fund other avenues through which to ensure a water supply for years.

"We are trying to ensure a water supply that will at least be good for the next 50 years," Mayor Roy Hill says.

In addition to the possible lease of rights to Richland-Chambers water, the city is exploring a project to enlarge a private lake in exchange for water and obtaining access to corporate property that could be converted to a lake.

"Before the end of the year we are going to make a decision," Hill declares.

The mayor reports that the only sure bet on the table is that the city plans to drill a new municipal well east of town, at an estimated cost of $1.25 million.

Much of the city water needs, or the financing of projects, hinges on whether the city negotiates a lease of its Richland-Chambers rights. Hill says funds from the project would pay for drilling a new well and for laying distribution lines from town to the reservoir for the time when Fairfield decides to utilize that water source.

The Mayor says negotiations to lease its water rights to the reservoir would be for five years, and could be extended for another five years.

Fairfield, under a contract with Tarrant county, which owns the reservoir, must start paying for water from the reservoir in 2010 or forfeit its rights. Leasing its reservoir water rights would reserve the allotment for the city.

In all, the new city budget includes more than $9 million in water projects.

Deducting the water project expenses, the new city budget falls right in line with the prior year---regular expenses are about $6.8 million compared to a $6.49 million figure for fiscal year 2005-06.