The coal-burning power plant proposed for Surry County would release significant, and illegal, amounts of mercury and other pollutants, according to a new report. The report, to be released today, was commissioned by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group. Officials at the Henrico County-based Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which is proposing the plant, said yesterday that they were reviewing the report and could not comment in detail.

The proposed coal-fired power plant in Surry County has emerged as one of few issues that clearly divide the Democratic candidates for governor. On Jan. 22, former Del. Brian J. Moran of Alexandria announced his opposition to the plant, holding a news conference outside the Department of Environmental Quality headquarters in Richmond.

The $4 billion Cypress Creek power plant would be big, and it would burn coal. And those are problems, say opponents who argue that there are better ways to deal with rising energy demands. If built in Surry County to provide 1,500 megawatts, Cypress Creek would be Virginia’s largest coal-burning plant, topping Dominion Virginia Power’s Chesterfield Power Station near Chester.

That, in simplified form, summarizes the debate over the proposed
coal-burning power plant in Surry County, the latest front in Virginia’s struggle to find new energy sources while protecting the environment. The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative proposes to build the $4 billion plant in the tiny Surry County community of Dendron, about 60 miles southeast of Richmond.

DENDRON Surry County Administrator Tyrone W. Franklin thinks of the proposed Cypress Creek power plant as a redevelopment project that will bring good jobs as well as energy. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dendron was a big company town, built and run by the Surry Lumber Co. to house its mills and employees. The company—the largest processor of yellow pine timber east of the Mississippi River—thrived, and by the 1920s nearly 3,000 people lived in Dendron. The town’s very name comes from the Greek word for “tree.“

The U.S. Department of Labor filed complaints yesterday accusing suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick of illegally spending about $1.3 million in pension-plan funds for his own benefit, including paying restitution ordered in his dogfighting-conspiracy case.

Last of Vick’s co-defendants released All of Michael Vick’s dogfighting co-defendants now have been released from federal prison. Only the suspended Atlanta Falcons star remains behind bars. Vick is serving a 23-month prison term at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., and is due to be released July 20. Quanis Phillips, who like Vick pleaded guilty to a federal dogfighting conspiracy, was released from federal prison Friday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Web site.

Former NFL star Michael Vick is back in Virginia to plead guilty to state dogfighting charges, a move he hopes will expedite his return to society and, eventually, pro football.