By Cornelia de Bruin The Daily Times
Article Launched: 04/27/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


FARMINGTON — San Juan County is ranked No. 6 on the nation's Top 20 Worst Offenders for Carbon Dioxide Emissions list in research published by a Purdue University professor.

Being one of few non-major metropolitan areas included on the list further sets San Juan County apart from other cities listed by Kevin Gurney, Ph.D.
San Juan County follows counties that include Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit.

"This is really due to the electrical demand," Gurney said. "There is a wide-spread phenomena (in the U.S.) to produce power and send it to other areas."

Gurney said he was surprised to discover that all parts of the nation were represented on the Top 20 list.

"There is a great representation of the variety of sources of emissions," Gurney said. "The list shows the different texture of emissions."

Gurney pulled most of his data from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, but also obtained information from a federal acid rain program, the Federal Home Administration and the 2000 U.S. Census.

His research drew attention when ScienceDaily published its results in its April 17 issue.

Los Angeles' pollution comes from transportation, while Harris County, Texas — home to Houston — is polluted by industrial sources.

Part of San Juan County's pollution is generated in tandem with the energy produced at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station in Waterflow and Four Corners Power Plant in Upper Fruitland. Further affecting local air quality are pollutants emitted by petroleum and petrochemical production, Gurney said.

What's in the air?

The industry produces carbon and other pollutants. New Mexico Environment Department officials claim nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene, methane, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur oxides are the main pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry in San Juan County.

"It's a shell game," said Mike Eisenfeld, of San Juan Citizens Alliance. "BLM doesn't know how many compressors are in the area. It refers inquiries to the state Environment Department, who has no data."

San Juan Citizens Alliance took action against the BLM in 2003 when it was considering permitting about 10,000 new oil and gas wells in the county, Eisenfeld said.

"We were putting the onus on an ozone task force," he said. "Almost six years later no data is available from the task force other than suggestions for how to mitigate the effects of more drilling. We continue to say the way to prevent the ozone is to deny the permits."

Joel Farrell, assistant field manager for BLM's Farmington office, could not furnish any ozone task force data. He referred questions about the group's findings to the Environment Department in Santa Fe.

Eisenfeld said the clusters of all oil and gas industry equipment combine to become an aggregate source of pollution.

Mary Uhl, bureau chief of the Environment Department's Air Quality Bureau, said the main contributors to San Juan County's carbon emissions are its two power plants.

Susan Sponar, a spokeswoman for PNM-operated San Juan Generating Station, said Gurney's conclusions do not come as a surprise since two of the nation's largest coal-burning power plants are in San Juan County and others are not far from them.

She pointed out the utility is in the middle of a $320 million upgrade of the plants — an upgrade that shows it might exceed initial estimates of improvement in lessening carbon emissions.

"We are also taking part in a study sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute that would develop a cost-effective technology to take the carbon out of the plants' emissions," Sponar said. "The goal is to develop a technology for existing or new plants, using chilled ammonia technology."

It also is a founding member of a group called U.S. CAP, a consortium of electrical companies and environmentalists working toward a national carbon policy created to regulate all sources of carbon emissions.

"The policy takes a long view regarding carbon emissions," Sponar said.

Damon Gross, spokesman for Arizona Public Service, which owns and operates Four Corners Power Plant, did not return a call requesting comment.


Study timing

The results of Gurney's study come at a time when the nation's power companies plan to increase their use of coal in generating energy.

The Sierra Club notes about 150 new coal-fired power stations are on the drawing board across the U.S., adding some already are under construction.

Slated for Burnham, on the Navajo Nation, is the 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock Power Plant, which will burn pulverized coal. Diné Power Authority, formed by the Navajo Nation to operate the plant, and Sithe Global Energy, which is paying for its construction, are awaiting federal environmental permits.

"There is no doubt that coal is the most carbon dioxide-emitting energy," Gurney said. "Natural gas is better, and there's also wind- and solar-generated energy."

Gurney's point is popular with foes of Desert Rock Power Plant, such as Eisenfeld of San Juan Citizen's Alliance. Eisenfeld and Dailan Long, community organizer of Diné CARE (Citizens Against Ruining our Environment) both push for alternative energy generation.

Gurney hopes to extend and apply the results of his research.

"It raises questions of socioeconomic issues, but it also takes a quantum leap to do something more detailed," the researcher said. "It has been difficult for public and policy makers to have a closer connection to climate change."

The political dialogue on the subject has gone in several directions, he said.

"The climate change story is not as it's been portrayed as originating with Al Gore," he said. "It comes from a community of people who do science."

The first hypothesis that pumping tons of chemicals into the atmosphere and the effect of the sun on them could cause the climate to change originated with a Swedish geophysicist, Svanti Arrhenius, at the turn of the 19th century.

"He was the founder of modern-day meteorology," Gurney said.

Gurney is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric science, and leader of a carbon dioxide inventory project called Vulcan. He received his doctorate in ecology from Colorado State University in 2004.

Top 20 for carbon pollution

The nation's Top 20 worst counties for carbon dioxide emissions, and the amounts of pollutant pumped into the atmosphere include:

1. Harris, Texas (Houston) - 18.625 million tons of carbon per year

2. Los Angeles, Calif. (Los Angeles) - 18.595 tons/year

3. Cook, Ill. (Chicago) - 13.209 tons/year

4. Cuyahoga, Ohio (Cleveland) - 11.144 tons/year

5. Wayne, Mich. (Detroit) - 8.270 tons/year

6. San Juan, N.M. (Farmington) - 8.245 tons/year

7. Santa Clara, Calif. (San Jose) - 7.995 tons/year

8. Jefferson, Ala. (Birmingham) - 7.951 tons/year

9. Wilcox, Ala. (Camden) - 7.615 tons/year

10. East Baton Rouge, La. (Baton Rouge) - 7.322 tons/year

11. Titus, Texas (Mt. Pleasant) - 7.244 tons/year

12. Carbon, Pa. (Jim Thorpe) - 6.534 tons/year

13. Porter, Ind. (Valparaiso) - 6.331 tons/year

14. Jefferson, Ohio (Steubenville) - 6.278 tons/year

15. Indiana, Pa. (Indiana) - 6.224 tons/year

16. Middlesex, Mass. (Boston metro area) - 6.198 tons/year

17. Bexar, Texas (San Antonio) - 6.141 tons/year

18. Hillsborough, Fla. (Tampa) - 6.037 tons/year

19. Suffolk, N.Y. (New York metro area) - 6.030 tons/year

20. Clark, Nev. (Las Vegas) - 5.995 tons/year



Source: Purdue University, Kevin Gurney, Ph.D