FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – The owners of a coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation reached a settlement Wednesday with federal agencies over complaints they flouted rules for permits and violated the Clean Air Act. The agreement leads to expanded pollution-control upgrades that will cost millions of dollars.
The settlement filed in U.S. District Court in New Mexico came after years of negotiation among federal officials, the plant owners and environmentalists who sued in 2011. It includes no admission of wrongdoing but resulted in a $1.5 million civil penalty.
The plant’s operator, Arizona Public Service Co., said upgrades made to the Four Corners Power Plant in northwestern New Mexico were part of routine maintenance, and they did not require federal permits. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disagreed.
The EPA said a 2007 inspection revealed a lack of permits to replace equipment that pulverizes coal or to upgrade parts of the turbines, boilers and generators that could increase emissions. The 1,540-megawatt plant supplies power to households in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
“Basically, it’s a level-playing-field issue,” Jared Blumenfeld, administrator of the EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region in San Francisco, told The Associated Press. “If you’re building or renovating large power plants, you need to get a permit.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed complaints in more than two dozen cases around the country since 1999 alleging that coal-fired power plants violated the Clean Air Act. The largest settlement came in 2007 with American Electric Power for power plants around the Midwest and carried a $15 million civil penalty.
In some cases, companies failed for years to obtain permits to retrofit power plants, said Bruce Gelber, deputy assistant attorney general with the Justice Department’s Environment Division.
“They essentially had uncontrolled emissions of a pretty significant priority pollution,” he said.
A key part of the settlement is a $2 million fund that will pay for expenses related to respiratory health of Navajos, Blumenfeld said. Tribal members living around the power plant long have complained about pollution, saying it makes them sick, but the issue has not been well-studied.
