ASH LANDFILL MEETING

Where: Carl and Dan Volden Farm, S4993 Volden Lane, Just off Hwy. 56 between Viroqua and Genoa.

When: Saturday, 1 p.m.

Why: To discuss the Dairyland Power Ash Landfill proposal.

The local group was formed after some of the landowners along Hwy. 56 east of Genoa were approached by representatives of Dairyland and asked for permission to do soil and water testing to determine if their property would be suitable for a landfill. Many of the landowners said they were informed at the same time that the cooperative could potentially want their entire property if the project moves ahead.

According to Dairyland representative Deb Mirasola, the cooperative estimates it could take up to four years to complete the landfill siting and permitting process, with actual construction taking up to one year. Mirasola said the project will ultimately need about 600 acres for the landfill and a buffer area around it.

Currently, 80 percent of ash from Genoa is recycled in concrete and roads, with the rest being taken to an ash landfill near Dairyland's coal plant in Alma. Mirasola said new pollution control equipment at Genoa, including a filter baghouse, will improve air emissions from the plant, but also will create more ash waste. Because lime is used to remove sulfur dioxide and mercury, the resulting ash can't be recycled in concrete anymore. The landfill will store coal ash and lime waste with captured sulfur dioxide and heavy metals that have been collected in the baghouse, Mirasola said.

Scott Leum, one of the organizers of the landowner group, owns property next to one of the proposed sites for the landfill. Leum has a home and computer software business and has been educating himself on the process Dairyland will use to remove sulfur dioxide and other contaminates from its emissions.

Leum said Dairyland is doing what it needs to in order to comply with stricter emissions standards, but he said the method Dairyland has proposed to dispose of the resulting ash and the way the cooperative approached land-owners was wrong. Leum along with others have formed People for H.O.P.E. or (Harmony Township, Organ-ics, Property, Environment).

"So far all 11 landowners have hung together," Leum said. "We will all be at the meeting on Saturday to listen and ask questions."

Leum said 96th Assemblyman Lee Nerison (R-Westby) and State Senator Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) will be at the meeting to moderate the session. Leum said what he hopes to hear is that Dairyland is open to alternatives that could produce a win-win for everyone instead of the current plan that could displace as many as 20 landowners.

It seems like there are other alternatives," Leum said. "The way they did this it comes across looking like the quick and easy solution."

Leum said his research and the research of others in the group shows there may be other solutions and Leum would like to see that those alternatives have been explored completely. One option Leum found was a process that uses the waste ash and turns it into an inert substance that is then turned into a gravel or wall board.

"There was a company that was doing that process, but I don't think they were able to stay in business because it cost more than blasting rock out of a quarry," Leum said. "But if we are spending $50 million on a landfill wouldn't it make sense to subsidize a gravel plant like we do ethanol?"

Leum still is curious over the choice of the landfill sites, which is right in the middle of organic farming country. He said Dairyland officials need to explain why they decided against trucking the ash to the La Crosse landfill.

Mirasola said previously that Dairyland looked into that option and it would cost six times more than the landfill proposition.

Leum said he and others have been in contact with Third District Congressman Ron Kind's (D-La Crosse) office and Senator Herb Kohl's (D-Milwaukee) office about the possibility of federal money that could be used to help subsidize a process to make a usable product rather than dump the material in a landfill.

"I was talking with someone who said Genoa was one of the first atomic plants in the country," said Leum. "We have some really neat stuff in Vernon County that the rest of the country doesn't have. We have internet television, we had this nuclear plant and organic farming. If we were one the first ones to have a nuclear power plant, then why can't we be one of the first ones to come up with another solution besides dumping it in the ground? What if we could have a pilot study that could be a model for the rest of the country?"

Dairyland Power has been planning a separate public meeting on its proposal, scheduled for Oct. 17.