What we're asking the school district about air quality

We're asking the New Albany-Plain Local school district to publish the air-quality analyses that cover its school campus, and to arrange an independent review and a public briefing on them.

Seven gas plants totaling 1,936 megawatts are running, being built or awaiting approval in and next to the New Albany business park.¹ Each one needs an air permit from Ohio EPA, which sets its emission limits.² For one of them, PowerConneX 3, the siting board's staff reported that Ohio EPA's review was on hold "awaiting revised modeling due to annual emission rate calculation errors."³

The Downwind map gives a rough picture of where the exhaust goes. It is a simplified screening model with approximate plant locations, not a regulatory study. The modeling behind the air permits is the official analysis, and we want the district to ask for it and explain it to families.

What we're asking for

Please identify and publish the air-quality analyses that cover the school campus, including school buildings, playgrounds and athletic fields. Please explain which existing and proposed power plants those analyses include, and how they account for background pollution and different operating conditions.

We're also asking the district to arrange an independent technical review and a public briefing. Residents should be able to understand the findings, what is still uncertain, and whether more monitoring is needed.

We haven't verified the distance from the campus to each plant, so we aren't saying how close they are. We'll add that once the plant locations are checked.

Next step

Bring this request to a school board meeting, in your own words, or send it to the board in writing. School board and council meetings are listed under upcoming dates.

All news and events

What we're asking for

Next step

Sources