Purchase of a site for a new natural gas-fired electric generating plant in north Freestone county recently was completed by MyPower Corp. and the company reports it is waiting on a draft air quality permit from Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

When the draft permit is issued, the company will conduct public hearings before the facility receives the goahead for construction.

Information on the plant, announced early this year, was provided at a luncheon held last week at Big Cedar Country Club and attended by residents from throughout the county.

"We hope to get the draft air quality permit by before the end of the year and we hope to have a permit issued in 2010," James Florez, Burson Marsteller managing director says.

Burson-Marsteller is a public relations and communications firm with an office in Dallas. The firm is working with MyPower of Houston, a subsidiary of Mitsui and Company (USA), with headquarters in New York, N.Y.

Traveling with Florez on his rounds in Freestone county is Tom Young of The Woodlands, president of TRY Ventures International, Inc., and a consultant with MyPower.

Proposed is a 550 megawatt electric generating plant powered by natural gas, about half the size of Freestone Energy Center, a gas-fired power plant operated by Calpine Corp on FM 488.

Location of the facility is on a 78-acre tract of land on CR 196 near FM 416, about a half mile south of Richland-Chambers Reservoir.

The plant has been named Lakeside Energy Center and is an intermediate load and base load facility, selling power to electricity providers, Young says.

A 20-inch natural gas transmission line of Enbridge crosses the plant site, water for steam turbines will be drawn from Richland-Chambers and high-voltage transmission lines are nearby.

Environmental impact on the site is expected to be minimal because the land already was cleared for agricultural operations, Young says.

Construction is expected to start in late 2011, at the earliest, and be completed in three years at a cost of an estimated $400 million.

The project will employ 400-600 workers during construction and the plant will require 24 fulltime employees when it goes on line.

Fairfield Industrial Development Corp. executive Dave Zuber reports that figures by Freestone Central Appraisal Districe chief appraiser Bud Black show that the plant will pay an estimated $5.5 million in property taxes annually, divided among Freestone county, Fairfield Hospital District and Fairfield Independent School District.

Because the facility is natural gas-fired, it will emit 50 percent less carbon dioxide, 40 percent less nitrogen oxides and only three percent as much sulfur oxides as a comparable size coal-fired plant.

"It's as clean as you can get, unless its nuclear," Florez says.

The plant is expected to draw two million gallons of water per day from Richland-Chambers which, Florez and Young report, is much less than daily evaporation from the reservoir.

Tarrant Regional Water District, which owns and operates the reservoir, has provided a positive preliminary assessment of the project along with assurance that water needs can be provided.

"Evaporation from the reservoir is a lot more than any of us will be taking," Florez says.

Calpine also draws reservoir water for its operations.

Water used in power generation will not be discharged back into the reservoir. A discharge site has not yet been determined, but Florez and Young point out that the water will be clean and treated when it leaves the plant.

"It (the plant) will be built with the best available control technology (BACT)," Florez says, noting that pollution controls will meet all state and federal standards.

He also notes that if carbon dioxide sequestration is required—-that was a main component of the federal FutureGen power plant project—-the company will comply.

Over the next few months, Florez and Young plan to meet with community groups to hear any concerns about the project.

"We want to sit down and talk, and work out the right solutions," Florez says.

The MyPower representatives stress that the company wants to be a good corporate neighbor in the community.

"We want to be a good neighbor. We want to build a good asset for the community," Florez says.

This is the first power plant to be built by MyPower, but parent company Mitsui has constructed power plants throughout the world.