3-11-2O12- rooted 

        when i was at rogers i decided to take a drive on down alongside the ohio river and past that same power plant i talked about recently. a humongous thing you drive your vehicle through to other side. i guess it is ok to have a power plant over a road in case there is an earthquake , and you have massive structural failure then for sure it will rain girders and death  down on unsuspecting motorists. now if i wanted to build a house across the road and i owned both sides of the road and payed taxes on both sides of the road , should i not be given the same opportunity to put public interest last , and build my house. well i am not first energy. and doubt that will ever fly . 

      i drove down one side of the river to fort steuben bridge then hopped on west virginia side for the return trip to wellsville. this tree was along side the ohio river . its roots no doubt due to erosion on the river side keep working their way back into the river bank trying to cling on to what ever soil i can attach its tentacles to . 

       

        this next picture shows it in relation to other trees and to the banks of the ohio river, whoever can guess within a gallon the total number of gallons of water in this picture , in that river  minus the fish and tree carcasses, dead bodies , radioactive material , old fishing boats , and cars with corpses , cinders and coal from power plants, and chemicals and salt from roads. well i better give you the answer before some smartass calls me on it and actually wants something . the answer is all of it. and not one gallon less . thank god that river always stays full as we probably done want to see the bottom of it. at one time in the summer and at various other times before the locks were built water in the river would drop so low navigation was impossible with ordinary boats . flat bottom boats and walking across the river were preferred means of transportation. i have never saw that in my lifetime but was in late 1800's and early 1900's . slaves would cross that way as certain places along the ohio were better to cross at then others and the underground railroad was operating more in these areas. 

       

      this is the w. h . sammis  power plant in stratton ohio . i have to eat crow agaain and tell you i made a mistake again. this is a whopper generating plant at 2355 mega watts of elecricity . these are all coal fired units and were subject to a major federal case brought about by eastern states including new york , and new jersey , that said emissions of nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide were causing acid rain conditions in their respective states. according to wikipedia , the eastern states won their court case and required the w. h. sammis plant to clean up its act. those  are scrubber bag houses over rt. 7 and that stack in the back ground is one the tallest in the world . after spending considerable time trying to verify that statement i have read have come to no conclusion whether it is true. i think it is the tallest scrub tower in the world as it is relatively new technology used in the tower to remove harmful wastes from the air. first energy was required to make improvements of over 1.1 billion dollars to improve air quality. 

       although it was nice to see the epa and the court system take such an active approach to reducing air emissions at this one plant , you can be assured that this was later passed on to the customers in the form of a rate increase. 

       now trying to put into perspective , we generate electricity along the ohio river and ship it inland about 80 miles to where it is used , and then we purge the air with almost 135,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide yearly  as well as untold amounts of mercury. i guess a rate increase is a little better. they pride them selves in their emission record now from the new technologies incorporated  , why did they have to wait so long. 

    the cumberland locks and dams are adjacent to the w. h . sammis power plant . it is my understanding a pilot project is underway to install a 3-5 megawatt hydro electric power plant in conjunction , with the dam and the power plant grid to harness power from the ohio river. we must be running out of coal is all i say. when you start to see cooperation of utilities and government , watch out. but at same time i applaud this effort.