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Show rying out a research pro- , ject concerning the physiological physio-logical effects to deer and small mammals In the area. , ''After four years engineering engineer-ing and planning, actual construction con-struction on Huntington's Initial In-itial unit began In March of 1971. During peak construction, construc-tion, employment at the site reached 984 men. The number num-ber of employees needed to run the initial unit is 44 men. The plant rests on a concrete, con-crete, steel reinforced pad ranging In thickness from 4 to 27 feet. The mat contains 16,250 cubic yards of concrete con-crete and is laced throughout through-out with 945 tons of reinforcing rein-forcing steel. ; 4 ' t ' - f , ; , ' -'A ;' ' . -tyf'-y " ; ; ' ' ;: ty'ty,.:. y--y- '-. ;yy' ' ;'y y'-y j r$ x:ysvu.ZF - .-. .-. ''jy4H6&&46M; y.-... . yty-sW, VP ,.sx&mms: - -; f ? : I i ,i in I, ,i .1 mr -; f-iim "' if-xy""-----''-'---------TT i nitrr- - """ The initial unit of Utah Power & Light Co.'s Huntington Plant has begun commercial operation and will produce 430,000 kilowatts In time for the utility's summer peak loads. UP&L HUNTINGTON PLANT GOES INTO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION The $129 million initial unit of Utah Power & Light Co.'s Huntington Plant that began commercial operation in July adds an additional 430,000 kilowatts to the com -pany's generating capability to meet the increasing demand de-mand for electricity. Just so that one may grasp the impact of 430,000 kilowatts kilo-watts that's enough electricity elec-tricity to supply two cities the size of Ogden, Utah or two heavy industrial loads like KennecottCopper'sUtah operation. With the addition of the Huntington unit, the utility's generating capability capabil-ity totals 1,795,000 kilowatts an Increase of 124 percent over that of ten years ago. Commercial operation of the unit came some two months after the first fires were lighted in the 231 -foot-high boiler for steam system sys-tem tests. "You -don't just press a button and. expect $129- mil - ; lion worthtf technical equipment equip-ment to start right off the bat," says Gordon Newbold, plant superintendent. "There are, for Instance, 190 control systems which have to be thoroughly checked check-ed before the turbine -generator unit is even rolled." Mr. Newbold's check-out list of systems Included the following fol-lowing examples: fire protection pro-tection system; raw river water treatment system for use in cooling and boiler makeup water; pump and fan bearing cooling water system; sys-tem; cooling tower system including pumps, piping, fans and motors; coal receiving and conveyor facilities from storage to plant; boiler bottom bot-tom and fly ash from the electrostatic precipitator; ignition system that lights the main boiler burners; automatic au-tomatic data gathering equipment that checks on more than 500 critical pieces piec-es of plant equipment and the computer that uses data to make mathematical calculations calcula-tions necessary for plant operation. "It takes hard work and patience, sometimes some-times pushing people to get a plant into operation." Actually, testing some of the systems began one year ago while construction was at its height, Mr. Newbold said. Cleaning of 120 miles of water and steam tubing (imagine (im-agine what a bolt or some other foreign material would do to turbine blades traveling travel-ing at 3,600 revolutions per minute) was completed before be-fore the first "roll" of the turbine on May 18. Huntington Plant is located locat-ed northwest of the community commun-ity of Huntington and 28 miles from Price. The plant site was selected because of the availability of two essential ingredients: coal and water. The coal that fuels the UP &L unit is very desirable for burning in a power plant having low sulphur content (0.5 percent), relatively low in ash content and high in Btu content. The mine supplying sup-plying coal to the plant is underground and located in Deer Creek Canyon -- approximately ap-proximately two miles from the plant site. The coal Is transported via a covered ; . conveyor to a coal pile, the : active portion of which is ':. covered with a roof to con-Evtrol con-Evtrol dust. Water sprays are Sused at all'' transfer" points, also part of dust control, : and the coal pile and con-, con-, veyor are hidden from the road passing the plant. The coal is supplied by Peabody Coal Co. The plant's first unit will require 1.2 million mil-lion tons of coal during nor-. nor-. mal operation. Water is supplied from the Huntington Creeek and from Cottonwood Creek by water rights exchange. To provide water in dry years, unused water is stored in Electric Lake , formed by a UP&L dam 18 milesupstreamfrom the plant. In addition to supplying sup-plying makeup and service water for the plant, the $9 million dam will ultimately back up a 30,000-acre-foot lake . offering recreational facilities to residents and visitors to the area. Company officials emphasized empha-sized that no major step was taken in the design and construction con-struction of the Huntington Plant without considering environmental impact. The Initial unit incorporates incorpor-ates an electrostatic precipitator precip-itator designed to remove 99.5 percent of the particulates. parti-culates. Huntington Plant will utilize cooling towers, this avoiding the return of any heated water to the stream, but rather utilized on the site or evaporated from ponds. The company further explained ex-plained that ash is taken from the plant to a remote draw and covered with earth. The draw is diked to prevent leaching from the ash to the surrounding area. Company officials explained ex-plained that four major studies stu-dies have been conducted by independent scientists and engineers and the evaluation of the effect of the plant operation op-eration on all aspects of the area will be continued. The studies Include: . A University of Utah program that considers the effect of plant operation on existing vegetation and animal ani-mal life. A Brlgham Young University Uni-versity study that considers the effect of plant operation on aquatic organisms in the surrounding area. A North American Weather Consultants study conducting a meterologlcal , data collection program. .... The Division of Wildlife. 1 Resouces of Utah study car- |