EPA demands Utah coal power plants cut emissions

June 17th, 2016 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

The Environmental Protection Agency has made plenty of news in recent months with its Clean Power Plan. The proposed environmental regulations would force a number of sweeping changes onto power plants, especially those that have a high carbon pollution output. While the Supreme Court issued a stay on the implementation of that plan following challenges from a number of private business interests and state governments, the EPA hasn't given up on regulating the waste materials produced by power plants. A recent case in Utah highlights how the agency can intervene.

Visibility at national parks a major EPA concern
The Associated Press reported the pollution control measures recently released by the EPA for the two Utah power plants center around visibility and associated concerns at national parks in the area. The EPA named two areas specifically, Arches and Canyonland national parks, noting visibility at those locations in the eastern part of the state was limited by output from two coal-fired power plants. The federal regulator also said visibility and associated concerns at other protected conservation and wilderness areas would improve following compliance with its initiative.

The organization in charge of those two facilities, Rocky Mountain Power, would have to incorporate additional equipment to tht plants, both located in Utah's Emery County. The EPA's decision is specifically focused on limiting nitrogen oxide pollution, a major contributor to vision-limiting haze, as opposed to a more general focus on the sum of pollutants that can exit the smokestacks and other disposal systems used by power plants. The level of specificity is certainly worth noting, as it indicates another channel through which the federal regulator can challenge plants they perceive to be heavy polluters.

The cost of implementing the equipment required by the EPA's decision, about $700 million in the estimation of Rocky Mountain Power, is significant to say the least. The utility operator said it would have to pass along those costs to customers. Those additional costs didn't come into play in the state-level plan developed for reducing emissions in Utah, which Rocky Mountain Power said it supported. That state plan was already in place, according to the AP. The company has a five-year timetable to install the pollution-reducing equipment based on the EPA's decision, although it's possible a legal challenge or other strategy may be deployed in an attempt to reverse the EPA's demand.

Similar location and EPA decision, different plants
Two other power plants operated in Utah by a different power utility, PacifiCorp, recently faced a similar mandate from the federal environmental regulator. The company has a five-year timeline to introduce necessary equipment to reduce pollutants that obscure visibility. According to Public News Service, the utility's Hunter and Huntington generation plants will have to reduce output of nitrogen oxide by 10,000 tons per year once the implementation period ends. Shane Levy, senior press secretary for the Sierra Club, told PNS pollution from plants in Utah threaten a number of major conservation and outdoor recreation areas.

"All told, there are nine Class I areas impacted or threatened by pollution," Levy said to PNS. "That's Utah's five national parks, the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and the Flat Tops Wilderness Area in Colorado."

Similar to the actions taken by Rocky Mountain Power, PacifiCorp is evaluating potential options, legal challenges and other resolutions before it responds to the EPA. The EPA initially had the Utah plants brought to its attention by a variety of environmental groups and outdoor recreation and tourism businesses, which were negatively affected by the pollution.