Sithe wants EPA action
Desert Rock permitting process moves along slowly
[File Photo]

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Sometime in March, Sithe Global and Desert Rock Energy Co. will have to decide whether to carry through on their notice of intent to sue the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency to get the federal agency to act on an air permit application for a proposed 1,500 megawatt coal-fired plant.

Nathan Plagens, vice president of Desert Rock Energy, in a recent meeting with Resources Committee, said the air permit is still in EPA’s Washington office.

“Since November 2006, EPA has been sitting on our permit with no action. It’s our understanding that everything’s complete, that we have responded to all of the EPA’s concerns, it’s just that it’s not politically convenient for the EPA to act on this permit right now.”

There are two other coal-fired plants in the Four Corners area in New Mexico. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory shows that San Juan Generating Station disposed of or otherwise released 4,081,812 pounds of total toxic chemicals in 2006, including 13,196 pounds in fugitive air emissions such as through leaks, spills, evaporation or ventilation systems, and 168,727 pounds in point source emissions, or through the stacks.

Four Corners Steam Electric Station reported 5,979,893 pounds of total waste managed, including 1,147 pounds in fugitive air emissions and 241,454 pounds in point source emissions.

Modeling used to predict emissions for the Desert Rock plant, as stated in the Environmental Impact Statement, showed the potential effects on air quality due to emissions from the proposed facility are expected to result in no adverse impacts to the area.

Sithe recently gave EPA a 60-day notice of intent to sue, as required by law, in hopes that it would prompt EPA to issue the permit.

“That 60 day period will end sometime in the middle of March. Hopefully we’ll get the air permit before then. If not, then we’ll have to consider what actions we want to take thereafter,” Plagens said.

“We do not want to file suit against EPA. Lawsuits only make lawyers rich, and we have to work with EPA as a partner as long as we have our permit issued through that agency, but they’ve sat on this permit for four years now.

The law says that they’re supposed to act on it in 12 months. Although we didn’t expect to get a permit in 12 months, we sure didn’t expect to wait four years to get a permit.”

The Navajo Nation approved the business site lease in May 2005 for the 591-acre plant site. The information has been submitted to the BIA, Plagens said, but “we have not heard back from BIA as to their comments. We are working with the president’s office to start some discussion on that document.”

The company, which is in partnership with the Navajo Nation’s Dine Power Authority, has submitted a right-of-way application to the Executive Branch’s Division of Natural Resources. There are three major ROWs, including the 25-mile, 250-foot-wide transmission line ROW from the plant to the Navajo Transmission Project ROW.

There’s also a 14-1/2-mile-long, 250-foot transmission ROW from the plant to the existing Four Corners plant substation.

“That is for reliability purposes,” Plagens said. Another request is for a 75-foot wide, 2.5-mile-long road from the plant site to the existing Burnham Road. “We’re also asking for some smaller, short-term rights-of-ways for lay-down areas and wire-pulling areas,” he said.

The company is seeking a 50-year term on the rights-of-ways with a 25 year extension. Plagens said the short-term rights-of-ways are for around five years with two-year short-term extensions if needed.

“That package has completed the executive review. We are waiting on one other piece of correspondence from Navajo Fish and Wildlife, and once we receive those, the document will be provided to legislative council and then we will be able to start the oversight review,” he said, and encouraged the committee to hold a work session on the specifics of the ROW package.

Plagens said the company completed two water wells at the project site last year. One, a test well, was drilled down to 5,500 feet; a monitoring well was drilled to 4,800 feet.

“We performed testing on these wells, and the test results confirmed the original modeling that we did for the EIS, that there will be no impact on water supplies in the San Juan River and Chaco River,” he said.

The report is expected to be completed shortly and submitted to Water Resources, BIA and others. “It looks like we will be able to get most of our water from the 591 acre site. We may or may not need to put a couple wells within one of the rights-of-ways.

“We are still trying to define and confirm whether we will have to go outside the plant boundary for the water, as far as the wells. We will not have to put wells east of 491 into the Sanostee area. Except for a couple in the right of way they will be on the lease site.”