WATERLOO -- The Fayette County Board of Health likely will pass a resolution opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Iowa.

The exact language is not available because the resolution is not yet official, said Joyce Friederich, home care director for Fayette County Health Department.

The language will likely be modeled after similar resolutions passed by the Black Hawk County and Johnson County boards of health, she confirmed.

An Oelwein-based organization named People Linked for Environmental Action and Support Efforts, or P.L.E.A.S.E., lobbied for the resolution and notified him about it, said Black Hawk County Health Department Director Tom O'Rourke.

The organization did not respond to several requests to comment.

"I think the momentum started by this board's initiative is starting to get legs," O'Rourke said at a health board meeting this week.

Last year the Johnson County Board of Health sent a letter to the governor urging him to reject the proposed LS Power coal-fired plant in Waterloo.

In January, the Black Hawk County Board of Health, citing a study it commissioned, urged the state to issue a moratorium on coal power plant permits until it enacts tougher air pollution standards.

The project will cost about $1.3 billion.

A DNR spokesman said it is still early in the process of reviewing the project's application, which is hundreds of pages long.

No time line has been set for its completion, or for public hearings.

A coal power plant is also proposed in Marshalltown.

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at

(319) 291-1580 or

jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.