Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, September 23, 2020 -- SEVEN
Boardman coal plant begins layoffs in
preparation for closing
In preparation for its
permanent closing this year,
the Boardman coal fired
plant will soon began laying
off employees, Morrow
County Commission Chair
Melissa Lindsay was re-
cently informed.
Closure of the plant
will end a 40-year run of
producing power at the
coal fire electrical generat-
ing plant, which provided
power for Portland General
Electric customers. In the
first round of layoffs the
company says 22 employ-
ees will lose their jobs on
November 5. About 70
people are currently em-
ployed at the plant, which
began operation in July of
1980 (see related story from
Gazette Times archives).
Below is a list of the
terminated employees pro-
vided in a letter to the coun- The PGE coal plant in Boardman prepares for closing.
ty commissioners:
A combination of law- were deemed viable for the
suits from environmental facility.
groups and political pres-
The 550-megawatt
sure has caused the plant plant was the only coal
to close prior to the end of burning electrical generat-
its economic life. Alterna- ing facility in Oregon. The
tive fuels such as biomass plant is one of PGE’s largest
were looked at as an al- power stations, producing
ternative to coal to keep 15 percent of the utility’s
the plant open, but none electricity in 2009.
Reprinted from the June 26,
1980 Heppner Gazette-Times
Boardman Coal Plant
to Generate in August
Editor’s note: The follow-
ing article appeared in the
June 26, 1980 issue of the
Heppner Gazette-Times
and was written after the
plant was just built and
before the plant started
operations.
By Steve Powell
Portland General Elec-
tric Coal Fire Plant near
Boardman is scheduled to
begin generating power
sometime in August.
Two million tons of
coal has been piled in the
storage yard at Carty for the
past six months. The coal
has been packed tightly to
reduce the chance of spon-
taneous combustion. Coal
trains pass through a thaw
shed since the trains have
to travel across the Rocky
Mountains. At the end of
the thaw shed is a rotary
car dumper which rotates
the railroad cars and dumps
the coal into hoppers. A
rotary coupling enables the
cars to be dumped with-
out disconnecting the car
from the rest of the train.
Cars are dumped every 105
seconds. Conveyor belts
take the coal to the main
pile, an emergency dump
pile or directly to the pow-
er plant. A rotating scoop
wheel picks up the coal and
dumps it into the conveyor
belt that leads to the plant.
Coal in railroad cars arrives
about the size of tennis balls
so before the coal can be
burned in the plant’s boiler,
crushers reduce the coal
to about 1-1/2 inches in
size and then a pulverizer
smashes it to a fine powder.
A 10,000-ton coal train
arrives every 2-1/2 days
with a little more than one
day’s fuel. A magnet pulls
out any tools that may be
in the coal which would
damage the crushers.
A fine powder is blown
into the combustion cham-
ber where temperatures
reach 3,000 degrees. The
boiler walls contain steel
tubing in which distilled
water is circulated and heat-
ed to form high pressure
steam. Distilled water is
used because impurities can
cause severe corrosion in
the boiler turbines.
Steam is pumped from
the boiler to the high-pres-
sure turbine generator
which produces electricity.
Concern for the envi-
ronment has played a vital
role in the operation of the
Boardman coal plant.
PGE has been monitor-
ing the area since the early
1970s and 10s of millions
of dollars have been spent
on environmental control
equipment.
The Boardman plant
will use sub-bituminous
(very soft) low sulfur coal
from the Amax Coal Com-
pany mines in Gillette,
WY. Emissions from the
plant will be released from
a 656-foot-high chimney.
Modern air quality con-
trol equipment will control
the emissions. When the
coal is burned 15 to 20 per-
cent of the ash falls to the
floor and is called bottom
ash. About 80 to 85 percent
of the ash leaves a furnace
with the gases and is called
fly ash.
A 27.5 million elec-
tricity static precipitator
will collect 99.5 percent of
the fly ash. A high voltage
electric field collects the
fly ash particles and when
the plates are vibrated, the
ash falls to the bottom into
a hopper. About 40,000
pounds of fly ash will be
produced every hour.
To further cut down
pollution, the fly ash, when
removed from the plant site,
is taken in covered trucks
and then buried. Coal on the
plant site is washed in liquid
sprays to suppress the dust.
The Boardman plant,
built by Bechtel Power
Corporation, costs more
than $525 million. PGE
owns 80 percent, with Ida-
ho Power Company and
Pacific Northwest Gener-
ating Company each own-
ing 10 percent. About 125
employees will work there
permanently once the con-
struction is completed. The
plant will produce 530,000
kilowatts.
Last week Heppner
Gazette times news edi-
tor Steve Powell flew on
a private PGE airplane
to Gillette WY, to visit
the Amax coal mines in
wealthy Campbell County,
which has 17 coal compa-
nies operating in it.
Gillette was a small
town of about 2,500 until
1956 when it increased to
7,000 when oil was dis-
covered. There is still oil
in the area but coal com-
panies began to surge into
the area in 1970. There are
now about 18,000 people in
Gillette with a projection of
38,000 by 1990, said Don
Warfield, Amax media rep-
resentative.
Amax Coal Company
is the third largest coal pro-
ducer in the United States.
It has two mines in Camp-
bell County. The Bel Air
mine is 18 miles North of
Gillette and is the largest
producing coal mine in the
US. It began production
in 1973. The Amax Eagle
Butte mine, eight miles
North of Gillette, is another
mine PGE coal will come
from.
Amax Coal Company
owns 11 coal mines and all
but one is a surface coal
mine. Its largest workforce
is at its only underground
mine in Illinois. Most of the
coal, about 99 percent sold
by Amex, is purchased by
electric utilities.
In the open pit method
topsoil is removed by giant
electric powered shovels.
Overburden (older soil) is
then removed. Overbur-
dened depth is anywhere
from a few feet to a few
100 feet, with an average
of about 90.
When the coal seam
is reached, the shovels put
the coal in 120-ton capacity
diesel electric haul trucks
would take the coal to a
hopper. Crushers 80 feet
below the hopper reduce
the size of the coal which
is then carried up a huge
conveyor belt to four 200-
foot high silos. The silos
can hold 12,000 tons each.
Railroad trains travel
underneath the silos and the
coal is deposited into the
empty cars. The coal is not
treated in any way because
it is so clean, Warfield said.
Coal is loaded contin-
ually for one hour and 15
minutes until the trains are
loaded. The trains travel
through the silo on cruise
control at one mile per
hour. 100 tons of coal can
be loaded in 30 to 40 sec-
onds. The trains are 105
cars long with each carrying
100 tons.
The Bel Air mine pro-
duces almost 15,000,000
tons of coal a year with a
coal seam of an average of
75 feet. It has 426 employ-
ees and pays more than 13
million in state and local
taxes. Belle Air loads four
to five trains a day.
The Eagle Butte mine
produced almost four mil-
lion tons of coal last year
with an average coal seam
of 130 feet. It has 199 em-
ployees and paid almost 4
million in state and local
taxes. It loads one or two
trains a day.
Wo m e n c o n s t i t u t e
about 16 percent of the total
workforce of both mines.
Three shifts run every day.
The coal seam the two
mines are working on is five
miles wide, 70 feet thick on
the average and 80 miles
long. Approximately 12
percent of all US coal is in
Wyoming and five percent
of all US coal is in Camp-
bell County.
Amax sells the coal for
$7 a ton, said Gary Brown,
assistant general manager
of the western division of
the Amax coal company.
Amax makes a 50 percent
profit on each ton. By the
time the trains get to the
Boardman plant it costs
PGE $22 a ton with the dif-
ference going to the railroad
companies for transporta-
tion costs.
In next week’s Gazette
times Steve Powell will
continue to discuss his trip
to Wyoming and will tell
about the process of recla-
mation at the coal mines.
The Loop to hold
work session
The Loop Morrow
County Special Transpor-
tation will be holding a
STIF Advisory Committee
work session on October 6
at 10:30 a.m., at the Bar-
tholomew Building lower
conference room, 110 N.
Court St. in Heppner.
In response to the cur-
rent health emergency re-
sulting from the COVID-19
pandemic, county facilities
have limited seating ca-
pacity and meetings are
being held electronically to
provide participation other
than in-person. The work
session will be available
for viewing via Morrow
County Zoom Meeting. To
schedule a Zoom Meeting
invitation please provide
your name, phone number
and email address with
The Loop Morrow County
Special Transportation via
phone message at 541-676-
5667, or kimes@co.mor-
row.or.us
The agenda will in-
clude roll call, introduc-
tions, STIF administrative
rules proposals for STIF
Discretionary Grant appli-
cation and other business
as needed for the good of
the order.
From the Gazette-Times archives
Reprinted from the July 24, 1980
Gazette-Times
Electricity begins to
flow from Boardman
By David Sykes
Electricity from Port-
land General Electric com-
pany’s new Boardman Coal
Fire plant began flowing to
the utilities’ customers for
the first time at 9:40 a.m.
July 12.
Completed on schedule
and within budget, the $525
million dollar plant took
some 4-1/2 years to build
and, according to PGE, can
produce 530,000 kilowatts
of electrical power. This
is enough electricity for
240,000 homes.
Operators of the plant
fired its giant boiler on oil
for test purposes during
the next week. It produced
about five percent of its
full power output during
the test.
Following the initial
test on oil, coal will be fed
into the boiler for the first
time and testing will con-
tinue until Boardman reach-
es its full power output.
Boardman will burn 315
tons of coal per hour when
operating at full power.
PGE president Robert
H. Short praised all those
associated with the design
and construction of the
Boardman plant. “To bring
a project of this magnitude
to completion right on tar-
get is truly commendable,”
Short said.
The addition of Board-
man to the PGE system will
ease the power crunch ex-
perience during the last few
years and allow us to meet
our customers growing
needs into the mid-1980s,
Short said.
“This however does
not lessen the importance
of increasing energy con-
servation cogeneration and
the development of renew-
able resources,” he said. “It
will take strong emphasis
on these programs as well
as new generating plants
to meet the Pacific North-
west’s needs in the years
ahead.”
Boardman project gen-
eral manager Tom Kings-
ton also praised all of the
contractors and workers
involved with the project.
At peak there were some
1,400 construction workers
on the job at Boardman. It
took 7.1 million manhours
to build the project.
In addition, Kingston
thanked the local commu-
nities for their tremendous
support for Boardman and
cooperative spirit in mini-
mizing any social economic
impacts from the project.
Kingston was in charge
of the plant’s construction
until being named to head
its operation in January
1980.
A site certificate to
build the Boardman project
was granted by the Nucle-
ar Thermo Energy Coun-
cil and signed by former
Governor Robert Straub in
1975. Construction began
in February 1976.
First structures com-
pleted were the dams and
dike forming the 1400 sur-
face acre Carty Reservoir. It
provides cooling water for
the plant as well as 10,000-
acre feet of water storage
for irrigation.
The Boeing Agri-in-
dustry company supplies
the water for the Carty Res-
ervoir through an 18-mile-
long, 60-inch diameter
pipeline from the Willow
Creek arm of the Columbia
River. In exchange it uses
the reservoir’s water stor-
age capacity.
Also dominating the
plant site is the project’s
656-foot-tall chimney. It is
made of reinforced concrete
with a freestanding steel
liner and took 15 months to
build. Next to the chimney
is a $27,000,000 electro-
static precipitator designed
to remove more than 99.5
percent of the fly asset re-
sults from burning the coal.
PGE says it is using
extremely low sulfur coal
at Boardman for additional
environmental protection.
The coal contains less than
0.5 percent sulfur.
Call for the Boardman
project comes from AMAX
coal companies Bel Air and
Eagle Butte mines near
Gillette, WY. PGE has a 20-
year contract with AMAX
for 1.2 million tons of coal
per year.
Unit trains make the
1200-mile trek from the
mine to the plant 10 times
each month. Each hundred
car train is more than a mile
in length and holds some
10,000 tons of coal.
Shipments of coal be-
gan arriving in Boardman
in January 1980. There are
more than 690,000 tons of
coal now stockpiled at the
plant, says PGE.
Electricity from the
Boardman plant will cost
about five cents a kwh to
produce. This compares
with about two cents a kwh
for electricity from the Tro-
jan nuclear plant and seven
to 10 cents a kwh for power
from oil-fired plants.
PGE said it had origi-
nally planned to build nu-
clear plants rather than the
Boardman project. Delays
and approval however led
to the decision to build the
coal fired project.
Bible study group
scheduled
Joe Lindsay of Lexing-
ton will be leading a Bible
Study group every Monday,
beginning September 28,
at St. Patrick’s Parish Hall,
from 5:15 to 5:50 p.m.
Everyone is welcome to
attend.
Those who wish may
attend a 6 p.m. Mass after-
wards. The Liturgical for
the following week will be
discussed and Social Dis-
tancing guidelines will be
followed.