This aerial photo shows the $1.8 billion expansion of the Cliffside Steam Station under construction by Duke Energy in North Carolina. The round stack that you see is part of the new emissions control technology which Duke Energy is installing in attempt to minimize the clean coal plant's impact on the environment. Construction work is just over halfway complete on a $1.8 billion expansion of Cliffside Steam Station despite howls of protests from environmental activists and area residents.

North Carolina resident Mike Cherin says he has difficulty breathing as he looks towards a future with Duke Energy’s new 825-megawatt clean coal unit in his backyard.

Cherin lives with his wife, Maggie, on four acres in Union Mills, N.C., just 18.5 miles from the Cliffside plant on the Rutherford and Cleveland county line. The facility is just a few miles from the Cherokee County line and is visible from numerous locations in the Grassy Pond and Cherokee Creek communities.

“Citizens of North Carolina and South Carolina will see an increase in respiratory illness from Cliffside’s increased pollution,” Cherin claimed. “I suffer from chronic bronchitis. All pollution aggravates and worsens my condition. When Unit 6 opens, it will mean only 29 fulltime jobs. The existing coal ash pond will be expanded dramatically and will become a disaster waiting to happen for the Broad River and our drinking water supply,” Cherin added.

Duke Energy presently has 2,000 workers on the Cliffside construction site.

About 30 percent of those workers are residents in Cherokee, Rutherford and Cleveland counties. The annual salary during the construction phase is approximately $150 million.

“Construction is going really well. We are 53 percent complete on the construction project,” Duke Energy spokesman Andy Thompson said. “The clean coal facility will generate more than double the electricity available for customers than the current units. This will put Duke Energy in a position to meet the energy needs to support new business and economic development growth in the region.”

Called the Cliffside Unit 6, the expansion project is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Environmental impact studies are a key requirement which Duke Energy and other utilities must meet when applying for applications to construct new facilities.

Duke Energy received a final revised air permit last March for the new, state-of-the-art Cliffside Unit 6 from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Air Quality. The permit designates that the unit is a minor source of hazardous air pollutants.

“This designation confirms Cliffside Unit 6 will have among the strictest, most effective air emission controls available to protect public health and the environment,” Thompson said.

The clean coal facility will result in the retirement of units 1-4 at the Cliffside Steam Station. Duke has committed to retiring 800 additional megawatts of older coal-fired generation, pledging the Unit 6 carbon neutral by 2018.

Duke Energy is installing a new stateof the-art emissions control system on the Cliffside Unit 6 as part of the unit’s design. In addition, Thompson said the utility plans to retrofit Unit 5 with the same emissions control technology.

Thompson said the new emissions control system will cut total plant mercury emissions by 50 percent.

“The emissions control technology will remove 99 percent sulfur dioxide emissions, 90 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions, and 90 percent of mercury emissions for Unit 6,” he said.

The NC River Keepers Association and the Southern Environmental Law Center are among the environmental groups which have actively opposed the Cliffside plant.

The groups are concerned about how the expansion project will impact water quality and air pollution.

“Public perception may be that if you reduce the rate of mercury released by new power plants, it will improve the environment, but that isn’t the case,” Cherin said. “Every ounce of mercury released merely compounds the problem.”

Duke Energy designed the cooling towers on Cliffside Unit 6 so it will require less withdrawal from Broad River and minimize thermal impact on the river.

“We have done some sampling on some of our Catawba lakes and have not seen the issues with mercury,” Thompson said.

This has not stopped environmental groups from continuing to oppose additional construction of coal and nuclear energy plants in the area.

Environmental activist Lou Zeller said he feels energy needs could be better met with more investments by utilities in alternative energy sources such as wind turbines and solar energy.

“This is a quality of life issue,” said Zeller, the clean air campaign coordinator for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. “Investing in solar and wind turbine energy to replace coal-burning power plants is an important part of the solution in meeting our future energy needs. The expansion of the Cliffside coal plant is really a step backwards.”