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Ariz. Governor: EPA Retrofit Rule for Coal Plant Could Gravely Impact State

Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer last week warned that federal rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to limit nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions by requiring costly technological retrofits at the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station (NGS) could threaten closure of the plant and impact jobs, power supplies, and water costs to the state’s citizens.

The three-unit 2,250-MW plant, located near Page, is run by the Salt River Project (SRP) and generates power primarily for the Central Arizona Project (CAP), a 336-mile-long system of aqueducts, tunnels, pumping plants, and pipelines that delivers Colorado River water to roughly 80% of Arizona’s water users. Brewer said that a proposed retrofit at the plant to improve air quality and visibility (particularly at Grand Canyon and other national parks) could affect the power source for what she called “an Arizona lifeblood”—the project ordained by Congress to reduce demands on Arizona’s limited groundwater resources.

The Navajo station was designated to power CAP, but it also generates $22 million from the sale of surplus power—revenues that make important contributions to the $57 million annual repayment obligations owed by the state for the construction of CAP. Closure of the plan could jeopardize this revenue, Brewer said.

In an Oct. 13 letter (PDF) to the EPA, the governor also said that the agency’s move to require the plant to require the “best available retrofit technology [BART]”—likely selective catalytic reduction, as the governor’s office told POWERnews—offered “minimal benefits and possible risks,” including threatening jobs of the Navajo Station’s 545 employees.

She said that if the EPA forced the station to install the recommended retrofit, it would only be 50% more effective than less expensive technology—yet cost up to 10 times as much. “NGS probably cannot economically sustain costs of that magnitude, and may need to cease operations,” she said.

Additionally, she noted, NGS had already voluntarily installed controls for sulfur dioxide, was achieving high levels of particulate emissions control, and it was currently installing “low-NOx combustion technology” worth $40 million to reduce NOx emissions that were even lower than the applicable presumptive BART limit. The retrofits were scheduled to be complete at all three units in 2011.

Finally, in addition to these costly ramifications, the proposed federal rules could have a “particularly harmful impact “on the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation, she said. Almost 80% of the 545 NGS full-time employees are Navajo, and the Kayenta Mine that provides coal to NGS employs another 422 tribal members. The revenue received by the Hopi Tribe from coal sales accounts for the bulk of the tribe’s funds for governmental operations.

“In these challenging economic times, the federal government should look more carefully at impacts to jobs and sustainable growth so as to avoid impractical or unjustified environmental mandates,” the governor said in a release last week. “Proposed federal rules like these that do not adequately account for or consider the costs and benefits can thwart real environmental and energy progress.”

Brewer pointed out that her administration had demonstrated a “full commitment” to renewable energy production. But she added, “we must insist that the federal government carefully considers the risks and rewards of these significant new regulations. In this case, EPA can avoid harmful impacts if it relies on more affordable, but environmentally aggressive controls to ensure cleaner air and clearer views.”

Source: Gov. Jan Brewer, SRP, EPA, Arizona Star

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