South County residents deserve to know what the Metcalf Energy
Center is pumping into our air
It’s been a long three-year wait for South County residents and their lungs. Has the wait been lung clogging? Who knows, because the city of San Jose has failed to install an air-monitoring station to the south of the Metcalf Energy Center, which opened in June 2004.
San Jose is not honoring its commitment. The city promised to install the equipment when it allowed Calpine Corporation to build the plant in 2001 at the height of the state’s energy crisis. The plant emits carbon monoxide, particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen.
While the northern station at Los Paseos Park has been operating since November 2004, it’s alarming that in three long years, the city of San Jose hasn’t found a location for the required southern station. The southern station is much more important, given that the prevailing winds blow from north to south, meaning the bulk of the pollution emitted from the Metcalf Energy Center is in the air that South County residents breath every day.
Our region – Coyote Valley, Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy – has the poorest air quality in the Bay Area due to our inland, valley location that traps pollutants and worsens with our hotter summer temperatures. In 2006, ground-level summer ozone pollution exceeded the national eight-hour standard two times in Gilroy and five times in San Martin, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District records.
Students at the Charter School of Morgan Hill are particularly at risk. The school is located near Sycamore Avenue and Monterey Road, about two miles from the only partially monitored plant.
California Assembly members Anna Caballero and John Laird, Democrats for the 27th and 28th districts, respectively, are joining our call for immediate attention to this issue by new San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, San Jose District 2 Councilman Forrest Williams and Calpine officials. The Assembly members each sent a letter to Reed asking why the southern station has not been installed yet. Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Take and Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro are also writing letters to Reed demanding immediate answers.Â
We urge Reed, who ran on a campaign of reform and accountability, to fulfill the city’s promise by immediately installing equipment that’s already been purchased by Calpine in a suitable location so pollution readings won’t be affected by proximity to U.S. 101 or trees and other objects that could obstruct wind patterns and absorb pollutants.
If Reed fails to honor San Jose’s very tardy committment, our elected officials must take whatever steps are necessary to protect the health of South County residents, even if it means filing complaints with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District or filing a lawsuit to force compliance.
Our lungs can’t wait any longer.
LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD
- San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed
ww************@sa*******.gov
(408) 535-4800
- Assemblyman John Laird
as******************@as******.gov
(916) 319-2027
- Assemblywoman Anna Caballero
as**********************@as******.gov
(916) 319-2028
- Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate
st********@mo********.gov
(408) 779-7259
