Sep. 7--WATERLOO -- The proposed 750-megawatt Elk Run Energy Station would burn cleaner than existing coal-fired power plants in nearby Cedar Falls. But opponents of the project proposed by LS Power say Black Hawk County residents can ill afford to inhale the additional hazardous emissions from the project planned for Waterloo's northeast side.

Both sides are expecting a battle when the Iowa Department of Natural Resources begins the public hearing process on whether to issue an air quality operating permit for the plant. Elk Run Energy Associates, a subsidiary of LS Power, which is based in New Jersey, filed its application June 3. The request came a month after the Waterloo City Council finished contentious public hearings and agreed to annex and rezone property along Newell Road east of the John Deere's plant on Donald Street and Tyson Fresh Meats.

The project will cost about $1.3 billion, and DNR officials have yet to begin reviewing hundreds of pages making up the application or to set a time line for the hearings.

Elk Run Energy must show the plant will use the best available technology to control hazardous emissions while utilizing air modeling programs to show the exhaust will not cause air quality in the area to deteriorate below acceptable standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"We selected combustion technology and emissions control technology that will meet or exceed all of the requirements," said Mark Milburn, a spokesman for Elk Run Energy.

He added the company is proposing "the latest and greatest technology" for mercury control that's been installed in newer plants.

"We'll have one of the cleanest plants in the country regarding mercury," Milburn said.

Don Shatzer, a member of Community Energy Solutions, which opposes the project, said state and EPA regulations are lacking.

"That's been one of the big complaints with the Bush administration and the EPA," he said. "There are going to be health risks associated with this plant."

Based on the application, the Elk Run Energy Station would do a better job of controlling most hazardous emissions than the much older and much smaller coal-burning power plant operated by Cedar Falls Utilities and the University of Northern Iowa's power plant.

The 750-megawatt Elk Run plant would annually emit a maximum of 961 tons of particulate matter -- a pollutant capable of causing or exacerbating lung and heart problems -- compared with 3,725 tons from the 35-megawatt CFU plant. The CFU Streeter Station also emits more sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide but has much lower lead and mercury emissions if both plants run full speed all year.

CFU spokesperson Betty Zeman said relying on the maximum potential for emissions can mislead because that assumes the facility is "run at 100 percent of capacity 100 percent of the time."

CFU runs Streeter Station at only 10 to 30 percent of capacity, generating the bulk of its power from ownership interest in large power plants in Council Bluffs and Sioux City.