Study Finds Abilene has Enough Water for Tenaska

On Thursday, the Abilene City Council was presented a study by their Water Utilities Department, finding that the City of Abilene has enough water to meet it's own needs and still provide a significant amount of treated wastewater to the proposed Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center that, if built,  will be located just east of Sweetwater. Tenaska had requested that the city provide up to 1.8 million gallons of the treated water per day to operate its cooling system. The City of Sweetwater had been in talks with Tenaska, the Omaha, Neb. based energy company, to supply them with at least one million gallons of wastewater per day, but suspended talks earlier this year, due to the lack of available water in Nolan County.

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"In addition to the revenue from water sales, the City of Abilene will receive significant economic benefits from the Tenaska Trailblazer Energy Center, including the creation of 1,500 jobs at peak construction, millions in local economic spending, and increased oil production," said Manroe.

Manroe also added that Trailblazer will be designed as one of the most environmentally responsible energy facilities in the nation. It will include state-of-the-art emission controls, which will lead to significantly lower average emission rates than existing coal plants, in addition to being among the first conventional coal-fueled plants to capture 85 to 90 percent of carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter the atmosphere, and use it for enhanced oil recovery. "This new, cleaner source of energy will actually decrease overall emissions in Texas by displacing electricity that would otherwise be generated by older plants, which emit more," she said.

No action was taken on the matter, but a public hearing is planned for Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009 at Abilene City Hall in the Council Chambers, Second Floor, 555 Walnut Street.

Read full story in Sweetwater Reporter.