By FELICIA FONSECA Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 06/09/2008 03:43:19 PM MDT

http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_9532021&ct=ga&cd=W_u9qqMuNFs&usg=AFQjCNEEJ70XONTp-yHrSfvd_pOqDRCVAw

ALBUQUERQUE—The Navajo Nation could soon learn whether it has secured an air permit for a proposed controversial coal-fired power plant on reservation land in northern New Mexico.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a consent decree last week in U.S. District Court in Houston, agreeing to act on the permit by July 31. Before the decree is finalized, the EPA must publish it in the Federal Register and allow the public to comment on it.

"We'll take in the comments and review them," said Niloufar Glosson, a spokeswoman for the EPA's Air Division in San Francisco. "Unless the Department of Justice decides that the comments disclose facts that (find) this action is inappropriate, we'll make a decision on the 31st."

Construction on the plant south of Farmington can't start until the air permit and an environmental impact statement are approved.

The Dine Power Authority, which is partnering with Houston-based Sithe Global Power on the $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock project, sued the EPA in March, accusing the federal agency of dragging its feet on the permit.

The DPA and Sithe applied for the air permit in early 2004. Under federal law, the EPA has a year to make a determination
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and issue a decision.

"We feel strongly that we've met the conditions that are outlined, and we've got a strong permit that reduces emissions dramatically," Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Sithe, said Monday. "We're hopeful that having a date certain will be our next step forward (in) getting that permit out."

Steve Begay, DPA general manager, said he believes that if the EPA intended to deny the permit, it would have done so by now.

"Absent any new earth-shattering thing that the opposition could bring out, I think the permit will go forward by the 31st," he said.

The EPA has received more than 1,000 mostly negative comments on the air permit, each of which the agency has had to respond to. The agency has said those comments and climate-modeling uncertainties for a region that includes several national parks have delayed the permit decision.

"We firmly believe there's every reason to deny based on the EPA's responsibility to regulate greenhouse gases, mercury, the ozone problem up here," said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, which has fought the plant.

A denial of the permit would be a huge blow to the project that tribal officials say would bring in $50 million annually to the tribe, create thousands of construction jobs and help the poverty stricken reservation.

However, if the air permit is granted, critics of the project vow to appeal. The Four Corners region already is home to two other coal-fired power plants, and environmentalists argue that Desert Rock would further harm the environment and residents' health.

The air permit would set limits for emissions covered under the federal Clean Air Act, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulates and lead emissions. Both federal officials and Desert Rock developers have said the draft permit contains some of the strictest controls ever set for a coal-fired power plant in the United States.