HENDERSON, Ky. — A company that owns coal reserves in the area has filed an application to rezone almost 1,923 acres for a $1 billion coal-fired power plant it wants built in Henderson County.

        Kentucky Emerald Land Co. LLC, a Louisville company, has asked the Henderson City-County Planning Commission to rezone the land from agricultural to heavy industrial.

        A public hearing is scheduled Tuesday night.

        A rezoning would help clear the way for an affiliated company, Cash Creek Generation LLC, that hopes to entice an electric generating company to finance, build and operate the 1,000-megawatt plant. The electricity would be sold to other utility companies, probably outside Kentucky.

        Such a plant would create a ready market for Kentucky Emerald's coal, which is being mined by Patriot Coal Co., a Peabody Energy Corp. subsidiary.

        The site for the possible plant is beside the Green River in eastern Henderson County. The plant entrance would be near Cash Creek Church.

        The generating station itself would occupy about 550 acres.

        The remaining 1,370 acres would be used for ash disposal, a coal stockpile, a limestone handling area, parking lot and buffer. The ground nearest the Green River would be left largely unaffected except for being crossed by one or two coal conveyor lines running from the river to the plant, a water intake pipeline and a cooling water discharge line.

        An application for a state air quality permit was submitted to the state last month, just hours before Gov. Paul Patton imposed a moratorium on power plant projects until a panel can analyze the impact on the environment and consumers.

        The state will continue to review the air permit application submitted by Cash Creek. The company hopes to receive its air permit by late 2002 and have the plant operating by 2006.

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