Groups petition to stop Desert Rock permit

August 15, 2008

Hope Nealson
Journal Staff Writer

In a joint petition filed today, a coalition of Navajo and conservation groups accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of bypassing scientific review and pushing through approval of a permit for the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant.

The group requested a withdrawal of the permit, which authorized the construction of a 1,500-megawatt plant on Navajo land near Farmington, N.M., on July 31.

"We are not going to take the EPA's ruling sitting down," said Dailan Long, Diné CARE spokesperson. "They think this is all a done deal, but we're making it known that we're going to continue to counteract and fight for the health of your communities."

Citing air quality and public health threats to the Four Corners, the groups asked the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board to review the permit decision and grant an extension of time so they can thoroughly document its problems.

According to coalition members, the EPA granted the permit too hastily after Desert Rock developers sued the agency, represented by the attorney for Sithe Global Power, Jeff Holmstead, the former head of EPA's air division under the Bush administration.

Frank Maisano, spokesperson for the Desert Rock Energy Co., said the permit has been under review for four years now.

"They're the same tired arguments, and they are displaced. There have been hundreds of hearings," Maisano said, noting EPA and environmental impact statement hearings, as well as numerous letters protesting the coal-fired plant.

The court recently dismissed the lawsuit against the EPA to force the permit as well as rejected New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's requests to intervene.

The groups laid out specific deficiencies that violated federal clean air and public health laws, including "failure to do a Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) analysis for hazardous air pollutants and improper analysis of whether the plan violates national ozone standards."

Failure to include emission limitations for carbon dioxide and failure to consider impacts related to mining, disposal of combustion waste and impacts on the region's scarce water supplies were also cited in the petition, along with the lack of a required consultation with other agencies on impacts of the plant on endangered species.

"More comprehensive analyses should have occurred," said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico Energy coordinator for the San Juan Citizens Alliance.

"They never got into the modeling. They made a decision that isn't supported by the science," he said, adding they didn't address mercury issues or the Clean Air Act.

"The data that is out there does not support the approval," Eisenfeld said.

Maisano said the permit is stringent enough and neither the mercury determination nor the environmental impact statement consultation are supposed to be in the air permit, which will happen before construction starts.

Advanced technologies will reduce water use by nearly 85 percent, virtually eliminating the project's regional pollution emissions while improving efficiency to reduce carbon emissions, Maisano said.

"The bottom line is, it's hard to stomach that they would ask for further delays. The only people that are hurt by the delays are Navajos," he said, adding hundreds of permanent jobs and thousands of construction jobs will help bring in $50 million in annual revenues for the Navajo nation.

Long disagrees.

"Desert rock is focused on coal and nothing else," he said. "How many jobs can be created for renewable energy sources compared to Desert Rock?"

Maisano maintained that a 66-7 tribal council vote in favor of the coal plant and the 2006 re-election of Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., a vocal advocate for the product who ran on a pro-coal platform, is proof enough of Navajo support.

"I don't buy this argument that there is this silent majority," Maisano said. "For four years they've said that, and yet they haven't been able to produce any evidence of that."

Eisenfeld said the EPA has made a purely political decision.

"We don't agree with their modeling, with their conclusions, and we believe that science has been abandoned for politics," he said, noting that San Juan County without Desert Rock will be out of attainment for ozone by 2009, according to the New Mexico Department of Environmental Health.

Eisenfeld added the EPA didn't take into account the entire region that will be affected.

"They're not really concerned with overseeing public health issues for communities and people in the Four Corners region," he said. "They told us at the hearings the air quality is fine here. What about the 35,000 natural gas wells in the San Juan basin, the natural gas and oil refineries, the Four Corners Power Plant and the San Juan Generating Station?

"It's the accumulative impacts of everything here that are already overburdened with air pollution, and the last thing we need is another coal plant," he said.

Reach Hope Nealson at hopen@cortezjournal.com.