The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing air pollution limits for the Navajo Generating Station, and Senator John McCain says the proposed regulations of the largest coal-fired power plant in the West are “disturbing.” The 2,250 megawatt power coal-fired power plant is located on the Navajo Nation, about 20 miles from the Grand Canyon.
The EPA says the expensive proposal is aimed at improving visibility and health conditions.
EPA’s proposed emission limit can be achieved by installing pollution control technology known as Selective Catalytic Reduction, which, in combination with the existing low-NOx burners the facility voluntarily installed between 2009 and 2011, would reduce emissions by 84%, or a total of 28,500 tons per year, by 2018.
EPA is proposing to give the plant five years, until 2023, to install new controls to achieve the emission limit.
NGS is co-owned by several entities: the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (24% share), Salt River Project, Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power, Arizona Public Service, Nevada Power Company and Tucson Electric Power.
Congressman Paul Gosar said he was “disappointed that President Obama’s EPA has put forth one of the most stringent emission mandates in the country just a week after promising a strategy that would balance the economic needs of Arizona and our environmental concerns. He was specifically concerned that the regulations would surely increase water and electricity bills.
Gosar believes that the EPA proposal will make “little to no visibility improvements at the Grand Canyon.”
“It is disturbing that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulations for the NGS power plant will leave Arizonans vulnerable to higher water and electricity costs,” said McCain echoed Gosar in the statement released Friday. “Forcing Arizona’s water and utility companies to spend up to $1 billion on plant upgrades that would negligibly improve visibility makes little economic or environmental sense.”
McCain said he will “be working with my colleagues in the Arizona Congressional delegation, the NGS owners, and Arizona’s water users to examine EPA’s claims that the proposed rule is ‘flexible’ enough to meet these new requirements.”
Earlier this month, both Senator Jeff Flake and McCain called on EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, “to clear the air on the Administration’s true intentions towards the NGS and unequivocally state that EPA’s original Best Available Retrofit Technology proposal for the plant is incompatible with the stated goals of this interagency agreement.”
Navajo Generating Station
Location: Navajo Indian Reservation near Page, Ariz.
Service area: Navajo Generating Station (NGS) serves electric customers in Arizona, Nevada and California. The station also supplies energy to pump water through the Central Arizona Project.
Description: Coal-fired generating station.
Capacity: 2,250 megawatts from three 750-MW units.
Fuel source: Low sulfur bituminous coal from Peabody Western Coal Company’s Kayenta Mine (78 miles to the southeast).
Plant construction: Construction began in 1969. The first unit began producing electricity in 1974. Commercial operation of the other units began in 1975 and 1976.
Construction costs: $650 million, including $200 million in environmental-control equipment. An additional $420 million was spent on new sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubbers in the 1990s, and $45 million in 2009-11 to reduce nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions.
Air quality and emissions: NGS complies with all federal air quality standards and emission limitations. Electrostatic precipitators capture 99% of the fly ash, which is recycled for use in concrete, cement and other construction materials.
Limestone scrubbers remove over 90% of SO2 emissions. Installation of low NOx burners and separated overfire air technology reduces NOx emissions by approximately 40%.
Waste management: A successful NGS waste management program focuses on waste minimization. NGS consistently achieves its goal to be a small generator of hazardous waste and, for significant periods of time, meets the more stringent conditionally-exempt small quantity generator status.
A 90-day public comment period will begin upon publication of the notice in the Federal Register. During this time, EPA will hold public hearings in Arizona. For additional information on the proposal and opportunities to provide input, please go to: http://www.epa.gov/region9/mediacenter/ngs
