Activists march against the university’s use of coal
Jeff Witt, assistant director of utilities, speaks to a group of environmentalist protesters about the ISU coal plant on Wednesday in front of the plant. Witt said the plant uses 155,000 tons of coal and generates 28,000 tons of ash per year; but only expels 20 percent of its allowed emissions. Photo: Manfred Strait/Iowa State Daily
April 21, 2009
“Renewable is doable,” shouted a crowd of 25 students as they marched through campus toward Iowa State’s power plant. “No coal is clean coal!”
The students were part of a group march to the university’s power plant to protest the use of coal and demand why renewable fuel sources aren’t being utilized.
Students from the Environmental Watchdog and ActivUs group along with several faculty members departed at 5:30 p.m. just north of the campanile. The entourage then rolled through campus led by Ellen Walsh, senior in public service and administration in agriculture and organizer of the event. The group toted signs with phrases including, “Ain’t no power like the power of the people, cause the power of the people don’t stop!” and drew strange looks from students.
When the protestors arrived at the gate of the power plant, they were greeted by Jeff Witt, assistant director of utilities with facilities planning and management.
The plant is working as efficiently and cleanly as it can on its coal-powered system, Witt said. He told the group that the plant only puts off 20 percent of its emission limit that was set by the Environmental Protection Agency, running far more cleanly than it has to.
Witt also said Iowa State is looking into some alternative options at the moment.
He said the univerisity is interested in purchasing power from a wind farm near Ames. They want to buy up five megawatts which would be roughly 7 to 8 percent of the campus’ demand.
Iowa State is looking into possibly making some alterations to accommodate burning a small amount of biomass, said Witt.
“It is feasible that the plant could supply around 5 to 10 percent of its energy by burning biomass,” he said.
He also said to completely eliminate coal from the university’s system, it would take a complete revamp of the system.
The plant would have to be built from the ground up with the entire infrastructure changing, which he said would have a huge capital startup cost.
Although coal will be a part of the system for the foreseeable future at least, Witt said, they are making steps toward supplementing the coal with other forms of energy over the coming years.
