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Where the birds are

Progress Energy provides an industrial-strength wildlife refuge.

By PAUL SWIDER, Times Staff Writer
Published October 31, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - An industrial facility with 300-foot smokestacks doesn't seem to be a good wildlife habitat, but members of St. Petersburg Audubon discovered that Progress Energy's power plant near Weedon Island is a hidden haven for birds.

"You got a rockin' place here," Lorraine Margeson told Progress engineers who opened the site up to Audubon volunteers Monday.

As Progress moves along on its $620-million conversion of the plant from an oil-fired to a gas-powered generator, its officials have been reaching out to the community to educate people on the construction. But allowing birders access to a secure parcel is a rare gesture. Rarer still is the company's willingness to make the facility as bird friendly as possible.

"I'd be happy to help any way I can," Progress plant manager Tom Lawery told Margeson and others who asked if the plant could restore gravel roofs some birds use for nesting. "We have a lot of flat roofs here."

Even without new efforts, the Progress site is a magnet for birds. When Audubon does its annual bird count, 100 volunteers typically find 150 species in all of south Pinellas over the course of a full day. On Monday, three volunteers counted 49 species at the Progress site in a 90-minute walk around four ponds.

"That's pretty wow," Margeson said. "It's staggering."

More interesting were the kinds of birds, Margeson said. There were blue-winged teal, hooded merganser, sora and black-necked stilt, she said. There were also songbirds and sparrows, which are hard to find any longer in Pinellas, she said.

"There's something good about the Progress Energy ponds for these species," Margeson said. "They're left alone."

The energy plant dates to the 1950s and sits on land created from dredged bay bottom. But it is surrounded by hundreds of acres of largely undisturbed habitat. Progress has to secure the area to protect its plant, so the result is a de facto preserve right next to the Weedon Island Preserve.

The discovery of a rich bird community is a happy accident as the company seeks to burnish its environmental image through the plant's conversion. The generation facility will be larger to meet growing demand, but it will also be substantially cleaner because it will burn natural gas instead of the heavy oil it now uses. With almost three times the capacity of the old facility, the new plant will cut emissions by 80 percent and even eliminate some toxins that used to spew from its stacks while it powers more than 700,000 homes.

Construction began almost a year ago and should be completed in June 2009. The project also includes a 17-mile gas pipeline being laid under Tampa Bay by Gulfstream Natural Gas System to connect the Progress plant to Port Manatee.

Lawery said the plant was prime for conversion and expansion because Pinellas' dense population is far from the statewide electrical grid, so improving production here is the most cost-effective way of reaching customers. The plant will no longer use heavy oil but will continue to function as a port for the thick fuel because Progress uses the site to pipe the oil to its Anclote plant in Holiday.

Other wildlife congregates around the series of cooling, stormwater and other ponds Progress has on the site. Rattlesnakes roam the tall grasses, and butterflies float over willows.

Margeson said the bird count will go up when migration is in full swing and the property could rival Fort De Soto Park for its avian diversity.

"They didn't plan for all these birdies to hang out here, but they do," Margeson said. "They just didn't realize what they have."

Paul Swider can be reached at pswider@sptimes.com or 892-2271.

[Last modified October 30, 2007, 23:13:51]