EPA
sued over Four Corners Power Plant emissions
Associated Press
Aug. 1, 2006 08:45 AM
FARMINGTON, N.M. - The Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra
Club has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
in an attempt to force it to implement emission controls
at the coal-fired Four Corners Power Plant. "The
Four Corners Power Plant is one of the dirtiest in the
nation and there is no good reason why the facility
shouldn't use modern pollution controls," said
Doug Fraiser, chairman of the chapter's air quality
department.
The 10-page
lawsuit, filed July 26 in federal court in Albuquerque,
contends the EPA failed to require the Navajo Nation
to complete a final implementation plan to reduce emissions
at the plant south of Fruitland. Such plans outline
how plant operators would reduce emissions.
The lawsuit
was under review, and federal officials cannot comment
on it, said Wendy Chavez, an EPA spokeswoman.
Steve Etcitty,
executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental
Protection Agency, was in budget hearings and not immediately
available for comment.
The Sierra
Club alleges the 2,040-megawatt plant exceeds standards
for nitrogen oxide and other emissions.
The plant
released the most nitrogen oxide emissions of all coal-fired
power plants nationwide, some 40,742 tons a year, according
to court documents. It also releases about 590 pounds
of mercury into the air, the documents say.
Implementation
plans establish a tribe's individual standards, said
Colleen McKaughan, associate director of the EPA's air
division in Tucson, Ariz. Tribes, in recognition of
their sovereignty, are allowed to opt out of specific
federal Clean Air Act regulations, she said.
"It
allows them to make decisions that are best for their
tribe and grants a lot of flexibility for themselves,"
she said. "Our job is to help them implement it."
Most tribal
agencies do not adhere to the entire Clean Air Act,
McKaughan said.
"It's
usually a hardship to implement an entire program without
the time to develop the resources needed to develop
a program," she said.
Arizona Public
Service Co. owns three units at the power plant, while
the two others are owned in varying percentages by Southern
California Edison, Arizona Public Service, Public Service
Company of New Mexico, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric
Power and El Paso Electric.
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