Two huge

power plants in neighboring Heard County are giving the

Coweta County Commission a major headache.

In fact,

the commission voted unanimously Tuesday to try and get a

stop-work order at the Dynegy Plant under contruction

until further studies can be done to evaluate the impact

on Coweta County.

The

commissioners recently learned that Dynegy is building a

500-megawatt natural gas-fired electric generating plant,

just across the line in Heard County.

But six

acres of the site lie in Coweta County and are zoned

rural resrve, not industrial. Officials from Dynegy

approached the Planning Department about using the tract

as a construction staging area, but were told the

property would have to be rezoned first. The company

decided not to seek a rezoning and planted Virginia Pines

as a buffer.

Commissioner

Jim McGuffey was outraged that the project was approved

Coweta residents or officials.

"The

citizens have not had an opportunity to voice concerns or

objections on a project that will affect their quality of

life," he said.

Heard

officials also approved th construction of the Tenaska

Generation Station, which will be a 100-megawatt power

station, and McGuffey wants the staff to examine the

impact of that facility on Coweta County.

Tom Lathem,

who lives near the proposed plant, wants to know where

the nearly four million gallons of water a day to fuel

the plant is going to come from and why people weren't

contacted about the facilty.

"Why

did the studies stop at the county line?" he said.

Dynegy will

sell the power generated at the Heard County Power

Project in the wholesale electricity market to

investor-owned utilities, electric cooperatives and

municipalities when commercial operations begin during

the second quarter of 2001.

The

capacity of Dynegy's 34 U.S. generation assets currently

operating or under construction is more than 7,000 gross

megawatts.

Dynegy Inc.

is one of the country's leading marketers of energy

products and services. Through its leadership position in

gathering, processing, transportation, power generation

and marketing of energy, the company provides energy

solutions to its customers primarily in North America and

the United Kingdom, according to company literature.

Some

research for this article was found at www.dynegy.com .