The forest on the west bank is a sort of wildlife sanctuary, said to be home to deer and red fox, a nesting ground for the black-crowned night-heron. The east bank is another world, dominated by metal monstrosities, lorded over by a pair of smokestacks emitting billowing plumes. Between them lies a narrow finger of Lake Springfield, a slough where wisps of steam rise on cold days to sway briefly before the wind sweeps them away.
Although you won’t find it labeled on any map, this little body of wateris widely known the “hot ditch,” and it has become a hot button issue for the Springfield City Council. Plans proposed for the construction of City Water, Light and Power’s “new generation” power plant call for a bridge across the mouth of the hot ditch — the ravine where CWLP discharges water from its cooling towers— connecting the power plant to the forested peninsula, which would become a coal-storage area.
This plan would make two major changes in the area: It would transform the peninsula’s precious green space into an industrial annex to the CWLP plant. And the bridge would effectively barricade boats from motoring into the hot ditch.
Kay Watt, who lives near the hot ditch, is circulating a petition asking the Council to keep the hot ditch open and the forested peninsula undisturbed. So far, she says, she and a friend have collected some 200 signatures. About 20 other anti-bridge activists are also circulating her petition.
“What’s so funny is the reaction of people,” Watt says. As soon as she tells them CWLP might mow down the forest and block the hot ditch, “they just grab the petition right out of your hand,” she says.
Watt’s main concerns are environmental — the effect of fly ash on amphibians that spawn in the hot ditch, the potential loss of old-growth white oaks, and the decimation of habitat for a variety of birds. Watt, who describes herself and her husband as “big birders,” says they have documented 128 species, including some threatened or endangered, in the wooded area.
“I’ve written down for 28 years all the birds I’ve seen in this area,” she says.
But her husband advised her that if she really wanted support, she should visit local bait shops. And he was right. As the only warm spot on the lake in the winter, the hot ditch is legendary among local sportsmen for being the place where the fish are always biting. The fisher-folk instantly took up Watt’s cause. Some are even circulating copies of her petition. “One fisherman says he has more than 200 signatures,” Watts says.
CWLP spokesperson Amber Sabin says officials are hoping to come up with a plan that doesn’t involve building a bridge, because they prefer “not to have a new site for the coal stock pile.” She declined to speculate on whether a new power plant could be designed without such a bridge.
“There’s no way to tell at this point how likely or unlikely it is. That site arrangement was presented as one feasible option in phase one of our future generation study. We’re beginning phase two, where they’ll be looking at preliminary design and site investigation, and they will determine that,” Sabin says.
The City Council is scheduled to vote Dec. 2 on an agreement to pay Burns & McDonnell approximately $2 million for preliminary engineering and permitting services for the new power plant. Specifications such as the size and design of the plant will be included in the agreement.
However, another proposal being prepared for City Council would block the hot ditch no matter what shape the new power plant takes. Ward 5 Alderman Joe Bartolomucci is currently drafting an ordinance calling for a system of buoys to close access to the ditch due to security concerns.
“I know it’s a paltry display of security, but any deterrent is going to help,” Bartolomucci says.
Barolomucci was inspired to draft what will be his first proposed ordinance after taking a tour of the Dallman Power Station about six weeks ago.
“Boaters do have access to the shoreline on either side of the discharge chute there, and during the tour, I was quite surprised to hear that in the past, people have actually gained access to the control rooms of the power plant without being stopped,” he says.
A similar plan was floated two years ago after the 9/11 tragedy, but fishing fans lobbied successfully against the idea.
Bartolomucci, who describes himself as an avid fisherman, makes no apology
for his concern. “I understand the attraction of the hot ditch, but it’s a different
world now,” Bartolomucci says.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2003.
