As contentious public meetings continue this week, and as a pivotal Senate hearing looms Wednesday, Alpine Energy Group Executive Vice President Donald Hurd says he is prepared to face the melee in order to clarify public perceptions about petroleum coke and about Alpine’s deal with the V.I. Water and Power Authority.
“We are 100 percent committed to this project,” Hurd said. “We do not enter into these agreements lightly.”
Hurd said he welcomed the chance for him and other Alpine executives to face the public, as well as lawmakers, especially after four senators recently went on a fact-finding trip to the U.S. mainland. He said he expects to dispel some misconceptions and rumors.
“People don’t seem to understand that you can use petroleum coke and use it in an environmentally responsible way,” he said in an interview with the Source before the first of four public meetings this week.
A relatively new source of solid fuel that emerged as an alternative in an era of sky-high oil prices, pet coke continues to alarm, baffle and antagonize various sectors of the community.
As a waste product of the oil-refining process, the toxic, talc-like dust burns like coal and leaves an ash byproduct of concentrated metals and toxins as residue that must be leached and combined with massive amounts of limestone and other materials after combustion.
Used as fuel since at least 1990, Hurd said it has consistently cost only 10 percent of the price of fuel oil, which is what WAPA uses now.
WAPA plans to burn pet coke only as it is needed to supplement the primary fuel for the proposed plants, which is to be municipal garbage diverted from the territory’s overburdened landfills.
“Across the country, there are at least 34 facilities in 13 states using pet coke without problems,” Hurd said. “Petroleum coke is a material that can be burned responsibly, and emissions can be cleaned effectively to meet all environmental standards.”
Hurd, who recently moved his family to St. Thomas, said one of the main misconceptions about the two facilities Alpine has been contracted to build for WAPA on St. Thomas and St. Croix is that waste materials will be a burden on the territory, taxpayers and rate payers.
“We have a contract to sell energy to WAPA at a certain price,” he said. “Our costs of operation are our costs, not the territory’s. We are responsible.”
Last week four V.I. lawmakers, an environmentalist and WAPA chief Hugo Hodge Jr. traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., to observe a plant operating there using 90 percent pet coke and 10 percent coal. Most came back impressed, and worried, about the huge mounds of waste product left over.
Hurd said what they may have failed to realize was that the Florida plant produces 20 times the amount of fly and bottom ash that the two V.I. plants would make combined.
Facing fears that the ash would be exposed and could blow away into the air and water, Hurd said the waste ash from the V.I. plants would be sucked up and contained by a powerful vacuum system and then mixed with water to make an aggregate much like cement.
After their brief field trip to Florida, Sens. Craig Barshinger and Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly both said they worried that the territory would be stuck with all the solidified ash or would have to pay to have it hauled off island and disposed of elsewhere.
“That is just not true,” Hurd said. “That continues to be one of the biggest misconceptions.”
Hurd said the solid aggregate is marketable in the Caribbean, as well as on the mainland, for use in soil reclamation, road construction and other uses.
He said that the waste would not burden the territory or rate payers and would be Alpine’s burden to bear.
“Alpine has the responsibility to dispose of the ash,” Hurd said. “Nobody else has to pay for that.”
Hurd said that during the three public meetings this week and during Wednesday’s Senate hearing before the Committee on Economic Development, Energy, and Technology, he and other Alpine executives expect to be challenged by those questioning Alpine’s lack of experience. The company has only been around since 2007, Hurd said.
But what is often misunderstood, he said, is that Alpine does not provide the technology or actually handle technical operations, but oversees the entire project that includes companies with long histories of playing their constituent parts.
“As the developer of the project, it is not our job to do each discrete task,” Hurd said, making it known that the question hit a sore spot. “It’s our job to put together the team.”
One of the members of that team, he said, is Energy Products of Idaho, which developed the so called “bubbling bed” technology that allows as many as 200 different solids to be combined and burned as fuel.
“It’s very flexible and is the best solution for the Virgin Islands,” Hurd said, citing what he called successful projects the company has operated in Europe and the U.S. mainland.
Hurd and other Alpine executives survived the first public meeting Monday at UVI’s Great Hall on St. Croix. And Hurd said he was prepared to face the crowd at Charlotte Amalie High School from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday on St. Thomas.
Perhaps their real test, however, will come Wednesday morning at the St. Thomas Legislature when they face senators who say they are “armed” with questions.
On St. Croix later Wednesday evening, Crucians in Focus and others opposed to the project plan to hold a meeting at Gertrude’s Restaurant on St. Croix.
A final public forum sponsored by WAPA and WMA officials is planned for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Legislature on St. John.
“The majority is silent,” Hurd said, explaining away the vocal opposition that has mostly been stoked by talk radio hosts.
“They do not deter us because we understand the technology,” he said.
“We believe we will prevail because we believe this is the best solution for this utility and they obviously agree,” Hurd said, citing the agreements already signed by WAPA and WMA.
“Everybody wants a lower utility bill. These facilities are the way for that new era in the Virgin Islands,” he said. “This project offers substantial savings for the government and the beginnings of savings for consumers.”
