In the northern part of Louisiana, the Sparta aquifer is similarly threatened. In the eastern part of the state, another proposed plant may impinge on the water supplies of a fast growing parish, dependent on underground supplies of potable drinking water. Hundreds of thousands of citizens will be at risk of future drinking water shortages. Additionally, clean air is vital to a healthy population, as well as clean water and uncontaminated soil. Airborne emissions from these proposed plants will adversely impact all of them.
Data already indicates air quality is impaired in at least two regions where plants are proposed.
Air emissions should be monitored. While natural gas power plants are less damaging to the environment than coal fired plants, citizens should not be required to sacrifice their right to breathe clean air because the agency charged with protecting their health allows emissions to the air that are too high and do not reflect the lowest achievable emission rates set by federal standards. The League of Women Voters of Louisiana absolutely objects to the unwarranted quantities of drinking quality groundwater that this project and others demand and to the lax standards required of air emissions and cooling water discharges. We question the wisdom of building unneeded capacity which will only encourage unnecessary use of energy and add to pollution and global warming.