By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab County Commissioners approved a zone change to
make way for a gas-fired power generation facility in
Spring Canyon, west of Mona.
"The ordinance we are proposing will change
properties from the GFMR
(grazing/forestry/mining/recreation) zone to the ID
(industrial) zone," said Joseph Bernini, commissioner,
prior to the vote.
Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the
zone change.
The property involved in the zone change comprises
approximately 40 acres.
"We held the duly noticed public hearings (one by
the planning commission and one by the county commission)
and, in conformity with the Juab County General Plan, the
property has been determined to be suitable for
industrial development," said Wm. Boyd Howarth,
commission chair.
Howarth said no negative comments had been
submitted by constituents either in writing or in
person.
There were 15 people present at Thursday's public
hearing held by Juab County Commissioners to take public
comment on a proposal for a zone change to allow the
construction of a natural gas-fired combined cycle power
generation facility west of Mona.
"We had no negative comments at the hearing but
there were many questions as to particulars," said
Howarth.
He said he was pleased that there were citizens who
were curious about the proposal and who were interested
enough to exercise their rights as citizens to attend the
meeting.
He said, to his way of thinking, that is the way
the public should behave and he only wished there were
more who would attend such hearings. Often there are no
interested citizens.
The hearing was held June 27 at 7 p.m. in
commission chambers in the county building.
Spring Canyon Energy LLC is proposing building a
facility on 40-acres of currently undeveloped
agricultural land two miles west of Mona and .75 miles
north of the pivotal Mona Switching Station.
The power generation facility will be air-cooled
and the gas turbines will be fitted with air inlet
chillers.
The air inlet chillers will allow for additional
power production when ambient air temperatures exceed 59
degrees.
"The plant will have a generation capacity of 530
Mw," said Howarth.
Two General Electric Frame 7-FA gas turbines will
be installed which are each capable of driving an
electrical generator. Normally, the base-load generating
system will be fired by natural gas.
The exhaust of the gas turbines, augmented by
additional heat when appropriate, from natural gas-fired
duct burners will be directed to two heat-recovery steam
generators.
The steam will then drive a single steam turbine
electric generator to create additional combined cycle
power.
An air-cooled condenser will condense spent steam
to water for re injection into the steam generators.
Using an air-cooled condenser greatly reduces water usage
requirements.
Another plus for the proposed facility is that it
has been configured with Lowest Achievable Emission Rate
(LAER) technology to control Nox, CO and other criteria
pollutants.
The county planning commission held their public
hearing on the zone change proposal prior to the hearing
held by commissioners.
The Juab County Zoning Map will now be amended
accordingly.
The zone change will take effect within 30 days, or
upon publication, whichever is shorter.
