Southern Illinois power plant gets $6.8 million

MARION, Ill. -- The state is giving a nonprofit power plant here $6.8 million to help build a special boiler, which officials say will create hundreds of new construction and mining jobs in an area that needs them badly.

The Southern Illinois Power Cooperative will use the money to build a circulating fluidized bed boiler, which will increase the energy the plant generates and add to its life span, Michael Murphy, head of coal development for the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, said Friday.

"This should add 30 productive years to the life of the facility," said Tim Reeves, SIPC's chief operating officer.

SIPC, which burns 800,000 tons of Illinois coal a year, will need 40 percent to 50 percent more to feed the new boiler, and that will create 250 additional jobs at the coal mines that supply it, Murphy said.

The project is expected to be completed in March 2003, according to a statement released by DCCA.

In addition to the mining jobs, the agency estimates the project will generate employment for 200 construction workers, 75 truck drivers and some 1,350 people in other support roles, the agency said.

"Projects like these have a huge impact in the overall state economy," DCCA Director Pam McDonough said.

Marion is in the far south-central part of the state, which has jobless levels higher than statewide averages.

The region, once rich with well-paying mining jobs, took a hit when the Clean Air Act of the 1990s made Illinois' high-sulfur coal too expensive to burn cleanly.