The Milpitas lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, claims that San Jose did not do a proper environmental impact report (EIR) and violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it approved the Los Esteros Critical Energy Facility in February.
"Milpitas asserts that San Jose violated CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines by failing to prepare an environmental impact report ... for the project and by approving the project absent a proper EIR and adequate findings,'' reads the lawsuit.
The suit claims that the proposed power plant would have a significant environmental impact on Milpitas because of its location close to the city limits.
"The (Los Esteros) buildings and equipment will include four 90-foot combustion stacks and two 60-foot cooling towers. The cooling towers would produce visible plumes that could reach 121 feet in height and be 46 feet long,'' according to the suit. "The (Los Esteros) buildings and plume would be visible from many points within the City of Milpitas and would constitute a significant visual intrusion.''
The Los Esteros plant was originally supposed to provide power exclusively for a proposed giant Internet server farm that U.S. Dataport Corp. wanted to build in the same area. However, U.S. Dataport has delayed its server farm indefinitely for economic reasons. Calpine Corp., the builder of Los Esteros, says the power generated by the proposed plant would be added to the overall state grid until U.S. Dataport builds its server farm.
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