Elk Run Energy doesn’t have an Iowa office yet, but they are preparing to apply for an Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) air quality permit at a proposed coal plant in Waterloo, Ia. 

Last week from St. Louis, Mo., Elk Run Energy’s Mark Millburn said he expects to begin application for an air quality permit with the Iowa DNR in September.  Millburn said that the air quality permit, “gives us the right to construct the plant under the Clean Air Act.“

He also noted that the public can learn about the quality of air they will be breathing from the coal plant at an Iowa DNR public informational meeting possibly before 2008.

This timetable would put the coal plant right on track for completion by 2012.

Elk Run Energy’s plan for a coal plant in Waterloo has many concerned about the future of eastern Iowa’s air quality.

Video interview available below the fold.In this video, Don Shatzer and Merle Bell explain some of their concerns with the plant.  Shatzer talks about his neighborhood, a Sept 9 rally to save Bell’s farm, and air quality in Iowa.

Don Shatzer is the vice-president of Community Energy Solutions, one of the groups fighting coal plant construction on Merle Bell’s farm.