The Sierra Club, which last year settled a dispute with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over emissions at the Four Corners Power Plant, has sued the EPA again, alleging it sidestepped its responsibility to protect public health.
Last December, the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande chapter announced the settlement of a lawsuit it filed in July 2006 against the EPA over emissions controls at the coal-fired plant in northwestern New Mexico. The Sierra Club decided to drop its claim after the EPA said it would finalize a pollution control plan for the plant, operated by Arizona Public Service Co.
The EPA issued a final plan in May for the 2,040-megawatt plant on the Navajo Nation.
The plan clarified jurisdictional questions and set enforceable limits on how much pollution the plant can release.
However, Matt Kenna, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center, which represents the Sierra Club, said the plan failed to study how pollution affects Four Corners residents.
Regulations require air quality monitoring when a regulatory plan is issued so officials can find out how much pollution the source causes and what must be done to protect public health, he said.
Emissions from the plant and other industry sources, as well as sunlight, temperature and other factors, contribute to a complex chemical process that produces ozone, a respiratory hazard.
“This is really important for the health of New Mexicans, but also for people in the whole Four Corners region,” Kenna said.
The Sierra Club has said it wants to see emissions reduced at the Four Corners Power Plant but has not specified by how much.
Earlier this month, Arizona Public Service filed a lawsuit before the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver over the regulatory plan.
That lawsuit seeks flexibility in the administration of dust and opacity emission limits, said Richard Grimes, environmental health and safety manager for the plant. He said the lawsuit does not challenge emission limits, but rather how they would be administered.
The EPA has declined to comment on pending litigation.
Kenna said the EPA said it had issued the plan for the plant to fill a regulatory gap rather than to protect health.
“That doesn't excuse you from issuing something that’s legally noncompliant” with the Clean Air Act, he said.
Last September, the EPA announced it had proposed plans to regulate emissions at two power plants on the Navajo Nation, including the Four Corners plant. The plans would close a regulatory gap and set emission limits for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, total particulate matter, opacity and dust control.
Arizona Public Service owns three units at the Four Corners plant. Two others are owned by Southern California Edison, Arizona Public Service, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and El Paso Electric.
The EPA is working on an air quality permit for the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project, another coal-fired plant that would be near the Four Corners plant.
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