The Colorado Springs Utilities Board pressed ahead with a study of decommissioning the coal-fired power plant downtown during a meeting Wednesday that at times degenerated into bickering and personal insults.

The board, which is composed of the City Council, initially considered a motion to start the study immediately and form a task force that would work on the scope of the analysis.

But Councilwoman Brandy Williams objected, saying the study needed parameters that included a timeline on when to decommission the Martin Drake Power Plant.

“Even if we could start throwing darts at the wall, there’s a date picked. You need parameters,” she said.

“If you just say, ‘Do a study and see when to decommission Drake,’ we could study this for the rest of our lives. There has to be some scope that this board agrees upon and that we work within those parameters,” she said. “Without that, I won’t live long enough to finish this study.”

In the end, the motion was withdrawn and board Chairman Scott Hente assigned Williams and Councilwoman Lisa Czelatdko to define the scope of the study and bring their work back to the board in October.

The future of the power plant has sparked a larger debate about community priorities, including relatively low electric rates versus economic growth and downtown aesthetics.

Complicating the debate is Colorado Springs Utilities’ $73.5 million investment in an experimental emissions control technology that is being installed at Drake.

The board previously decided to go ahead with the so-called scrubber technology before the study is completed, generating criticism from Mayor Steve Bach, former Vice Mayor Richard Skorman and others.

Skorman attended Wednesday’s meeting and said he appreciated that the board was moving ahead with the study but that it was “closing the door” on retiring Drake in the near future.

“I don’t think you’re going to come up with an answer that’s going to make people feel that Drake is going to get retired anytime soon. It’s going to be decades,” he said.

“I think we’re going to live with it as a community for 30, 40, 50 years. That’s what I’m seeing today. I may not be alive when that happens,” he said.

“We’ll spread your ashes at Drake,” Herpin said, generating both laughs and gasps.

Other exchanges at the meeting:

— Czelatdko and Councilwoman Angela Dougan talked over each other during a heated exchange in which Czelatdko said Dougan has voted on issues she didn’t understand.

— Czelatdko scolded Williams after Williams said that Councilman Tim Leigh, who was absent, had expressed concerns that the study had been placed on the agenda at the last minute without supporting documentation. Czelatdko told Williams she wasn’t allowed to give the opinion of an absent board member.

“That’s not an opinion on the subject,” Williams responded. “That’s just him wanting that stated for the record.”

— Dougan apologized to a representative of the Sierra Club, which recently filed a notice of intent to sue Utilities over alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act, for “some of the remarks” and “outbursts” of a colleague.

“I think everyone knows who I’m apologizing for,” Dougan said, referring to Herpin, who clashed with Sierra Club organizer Bryce Carter from the dais. Herpin said the environmental organization is picking on Utilities “because they smell blood in the water.”

“You go in and try to bully utilities into seeing things your way, hoping we’ll buckle under and close the power plant or whatever it is by raising suspected violations,” Herpin said.

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Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623

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A loader moves coal outside Colorado Springs Utilities’ Drake Power Plant in Colorado Springs Thursday, Sept. 11, 2008, toward the hopper that will transport the fuel into the power plant. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK/The Gazette file

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