Power plant hearing set

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September 2, 2010

By Janet Jacobs Corsicana Daily Sun The Corsicana Daily Sun Thu Sep 02, 2010, 06:36 PM CDT

Corsicana — A pre-hearing date has been set for the Navarro Generating water discharge permit, which is necessary to building a proposed power plant in southern Navarro County.

The meeting will be at 10 a.m. Oct. 11 at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), 300 W. 15th St. in Austin.

This is not the final hearing, but is a preparation for that hearing, according to officials from both SOAH and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Navarro Generating had applied for a water discharge permit, but opponents of the plant said the water could hurt them or their property downstream and asked for an independent judge to decide. The matter went to the SOAH.

“It is the pre-hearing at which they’ll designate parties to the case, make sure the notice of the hearing was adequate and then schedule the rest of the case,” explained Kerry Sullivan, general counsel for SOAH. “The hearing on the merits of the case will be part of that.”

The state has already decided which neighbors will be considered “affected parties,” and those include the closest downstream neighbors, and COPPs, the primary group opposing the plant, according to Andrea Morrow, with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The TCEQ has also granted them a hearing, on the condition that it be resolved within a year.

The prehearing next month will also allow other parties who weren’t included but want to be included a chance to state their reasons, Sullivan said.

“People whose hearing requests were denied, or new folks could appear at the hearing, and request to be part of the case and the judge would have to deal with that,” he explained.

No date for the final or evidentiary hearing has been set yet, but it could be set at the pre-hearing on Oct. 11.

“The main purpose (of the pre-hearing) is to confirm who the parties will be, and that could potentially be the folks whose hearing request was granted, as well as the executive director of the TCEQ and the applicant and the public interest counsel of the TCEQ, who is automatically a party to these cases,” Sullivan said.

The evidentiary hearing will resemble a civil case in a court of law, with lawyers and witnesses, and a judge, but no jury.

“It is like a trial,” Sullivan said. “The administrative law judge makes the determination of facts and rulings with regard to the law. He doesn’t make the final decision. He makes a written recommendation to the three commissioners to the TCEQ, and they make the final decision at an open meeting of the commission.”

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “sound off” to this article? E-mail: Soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com

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