Potomac River Generating Station to Close

The Potomac River Generating Station, which the MVT runs right along - and gets pushed out over the Potomac by, will be retired by Oct 1, 2012. It appears a "a group funded by the natural gas industry has come forward with a proposal to divert the $32 million from cleaning up the existing plant to shutting it down, and preparing the site for potential development."

This should create an opportunity to create a better MVT in this area, as well as other trails through the site, though there is no word on what is planned for the site or the facility beyond closure. Previously I wrote

A while ago I wrote about what would happen to the Potomac River Generating Station site, and the Mount Vernon Trail that runs through it, if it closed. Well, the American Clean Skies Foundation put together a proposal.  It's obviously not official, but their plan involves an improved MVT (moved out of the cage along the river and onto a greenway along Slater's Lane), a second trail on Dangerfield Island, connections along the extended street grid, and a bike station near a new water taxi pier.

From the press release:

 “Both the Alexandria City Council and community have worked extremely hard toward this goal, and we are very proud of the final result.  This news strengthens Alexandria’s future and opens the door to an enhanced quality of life for our residents.”

Under the terms of the agreement, GenOn has agreed to retire the generating station by October 1, 2012, or, if the plant is needed beyond that date for reliability purposes, as soon as it is no longer needed.  GenOn will coordinate with PJM Interconnection L.L.C., Pepco, and government regulators for the necessary notifications and approvals to close the plant. 

Comments

[charlie]

Shocking. I thought your original post was pie in the sky, but it's great that this is happening.

[Pseudoprime]

For a second, I was hoping this referred to the Chalk Point facility. The Pope's Creek Subdivision would make a nice rail trail if it didn't need to be used to ship coal there anymore.

[Bilsko]

Nice to hear this finalized. That's a nice 1.7 million ton reduction in CO2 emissions - (that will of course be produced elsewhere by other coal power plant(s) in the region).

They note the retirement date for Oct. next year -with an extension if PJM needs it for reliability-must-run purposes.

I imagine that the decomissioning process will push at least to 2015...

[Rootchopper]

I also thought you were just dreaming the other day. It's going to be interesting how the landed gentry in Old Town react to this. They are already bitching about development of some waterfront property a quarter mile to the south.

[washcycle]

I thought it was a long shot, even while I thought it made sense. An article on this in the Alexandria Gazette(?) has a quote from the anti-waterfront plan people. They think the plan has to be restarted because of this.

[Purple Eagle]

Sierra Club is advertising this decision as a victory for their "beyond coal" campaign. Mayor Bloomberg is giving them a major gift to help reduce the generating capacity of coal plants.

[Michael H.]

The Potomac River Green proposal is strange. It includes residential, commercial and retail buildings all surrounding a natural gas refueling station. It makes sense when you look at the funding for ACSF, but why would you put residential buildings around a natural gas refueling station? Wouldn't that be dangerous?

[Foo]

The "landed gentry" in Old Town have been fighting the coal plant for the better part of two decades.

[j reid]

It's not a CNG tanker, its a service station for cars. They have one on benning road and have never had any problems. this was the bullet point in a different article.

•A compressed natural gas (CNG) and fast-charge electric car refueling station for government, commercial fleets, and individual vehicles