Xcel Energy to Replace St. Paul, Minn., Plant

- A looming landmark on St. Paul's riverfront for eight decades, the coal-fired High Bridge plant will be replaced in the coming years with a gas-fueled facility.

The change means a lessened industrial presence -- including the demolition of the plant's signature smokestack -- as the Mississippi River enjoys new residential and recreational uses.

For 80 years, the hulking High Bridge power plant has dominated the riverfront just outside of downtown St. Paul. The plant's smokestack soars higher than any building in the city.

But within six years, the plant and the landmark stack should be gone. Xcel Energy won approval this month to tear down the coal- burning plant and replace it with one that burns natural gas.

Debate on Xcel's $1 billion plan -- which also includes conversion of its Riverside plant in Minneapolis and upgrades to a plant near Stillwater -- focused on energy prices, pollution and the region's need to make more electricity.

Now that the deal is done, however, civic boosters and many of the High Bridge plant's neighbors are touting what they see as a welcome side effect: a reduced industrial presence on the Mississippi River waterfront and in the surrounding communities.

"There's a new valuation being put on land in the inner city and along the river," said Patrick Seeb, executive director of the St. Paul Riverfront Corp., which supports development within the river corridor. "Xcel's decision to replace the High Bridge plant is a reflection of that."

Xcel officials said the new plant would be smaller than the existing brick-and-steel behemoth. There will be two stacks, each less than half as tall as the current one, which reaches more than 560 feet into the air. A sprawling coal pile will disappear. Trains won't be rolling onto the site.

"There will be major gains for the environment and for the neighborhood," said Kent Larson, Xcel's vice president for Minnesota and the Dakotas. "It will still be an industrial plant, but it will have much less impact."

Jeanne Masanz, who has five children and operates a home day- care center on Goodhue Street, looks forward to a time when long trains loaded with coal stop running through her neighborhood several times a week.

"When they go by, you can smell it, you can taste it and it gets dust all over," said Masanz, who has lived for 18 years on the bluff across from the plant. "If the new plant is cleaner and the trains are gone, that'll be great."

Still, some important challenges remain. Residents and environmentalists may raise concerns about dust and other pollution during demolition of the plant, which is set to begin in spring 2008. Also, Xcel officials said the new plant would require construction of a high-pressure natural gas pipeline -- which could touch off "not-in-my-backyard" debates.

There is some concern, too, that the new plant could be noisier than the existing plant. Xcel officials said noise should not be a problem. They said the new plant would route hot exhaust -- often the culprit in noisy facilities -- into secondary steam generators, making the plant quieter than some older-generation models.

Xcel's plans come during a time of a river renaissance in St. Paul.

In the past few years, the city has seen the construction of a new Science Museum of Minnesota, the renovation of Harriet Island Regional Park and the beginnings of a new Upper Landing residential neighborhood.

Minneapolis has been cultivating a river rebirth of its own.

Although the city will reap the benefits of reduced toxic emissions when Xcel converts the Riverside plant to natural gas, the visual impact of the project might not be as immediate as in St. Paul. Xcel officials said the existing plant, which houses a fairly new turbine, would be only partially demolished.

On the St. Paul waterfront, the Upper Landing project is going up within the shadow of the High Bridge stack. The first of more than 600 apartments and condominiums were completed last fall. One of the buildings is being built within a few hundred yards of the plant.

Plans for the riverfront homes marched ahead long before Xcel's plans were approved.

"Obviously, anything that's cleaner is better," said Matt Anfang, a project manager for Centex, the lead Upper Landing developer. "But we started a project that would succeed with the existing facility and that will succeed with the new one."

Xcel soon may be getting some new neighbors on the other side, too.

A developer is proposing turning an old power plant building at Island Station into condominiums and a restaurant.

The development would include the construction of several low- rise apartment buildings.

Not only will Xcel's project result in a lower-profile building, it also will create a bit more distance between the plant and the Upper Landing. The existing building is on the eastern end of Xcel's 70-acre tract, next to the new housing, but plans call for the gas- fired facility to be built roughly in the center of the property. Xcel officials said the site of the old plant would be left vacant to serve as a "buffer."

The empty tract will have some pollution, but some community leaders still are hoping it could be put to good use. Dave Thune, who will become the 2nd Ward City Council member on Jan. 5, said he would urge Xcel to plant trees on the land.

"There really is an opportunity to remove the coal pile and turn the buffer into a forest," said Thune, whose ward includes the High Bridge site.

Xcel officials said they would consider the idea. The company already has paid for thousands of trees and shrubs to be planted in recent years around the plant.

Thune said it would be bittersweet to watch the smokestack come down. Like an untold number of residents and visitors, Thune has used the stack as a guidepost for years.

"You don't like what comes out of it," Thune said. "But you use it as a landmark."