Nevada Power Plant To Cut Pollution
>
> By SCOTT THOMSEN
> .c The Associated Press
>
>
> PHOENIX (AP) - The owners of a coal-burning power plant that
> environmentalists say is a major source of the haze over the Grand Canyon
> have agreed to install pollution control equipment.
>
> The agreement between the owners of the Mohave Generating Station in
> Laughlin, Nev., and two environmental groups was filed Wednesday in
federal
> court in Las Vegas.
>
> It calls for installation of smokestack scrubbers, a filter system and new
> burners for the plant's boilers. The project could cost $300 million and
is
> supposed to be finished by 2006.
>
> ``This is going to be one of the largest cleanups of one of the old
> coal-powered plants in the West,'' said Rick Moore, air quality program
> officer for the Grand Canyon Trust, one of the environmental groups.
``This
> plant regularly belches enormous plumes of soot and smoke.''
>
> On Tuesday, the Salt River Project, a major Arizona utility, announced
> completion of a $420 million cleanup at a second coal-burning plant
accused
> of polluting the canyon, the Navajo Generating Station near Page.
>
> ``Both of these plants are examples of corporations stepping up to the
plate
> and taking care of their environmental responsibilities,'' Moore said.
> ``Cleaning up these two plants is definitely going to improve visitors'
> experiences at the Grand Canyon.''
>
> The Mohave plant, 75 miles from the Grand Canyon, is the last large power
> plant operating in the Southwest without equipment to control sulfur
> pollution.
>
> Air pollution affecting the canyon is also believed to come from Los
Angeles,
> Las Vegas and other cities.
>
> Environmental groups contend the 28-year-old Mohave plant routinely
exceeded
> federal standards for emissions of sulfur dioxide, which combines with
other
> atmospheric chemicals to form haze.
>
> ``This plant will go from one of the dirtiest to one of the cleanest in
the
> Southwest,'' said Rob Smith of the Sierra Club, the other environmental
group
> that signed the agreement.
>
> Bob Wyman, an attorney for Mohave's owners, said that the plant has stayed
> within federal guidelines but that settling the lawsuit makes it easier to
> continue operations in an increasingly competitive market.
>
> The improvements at the plant are designed to cut sulfur dioxide emissions
by
> at least 85 percent and reduce nitrogen oxides and soot.
>
> The Grand Canyon Trust and the Sierra Club sued in 1998 to try to force a
> cleanup. A judge now has 45 days to review the proposed consent decree
> submitted Wednesday.
>
> The Mohave plant is owned by Southern California Edison, the Los Angeles
> Department of Water & Power, Nevada Power Co. and the Salt River Project
in
> Phoenix. It produces 1,580 megawatts of electricity each year - enough to
> serve up to 1.5 million households in California, Arizona and Nevada.
>
> Each year, the plant burns about 6 million tons of coal. That creates
about
> 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 10,000 tons of soot and 20,000 tons of
> nitrogen oxide, the pollutant that stains the air brown over many large
> cities.
>
> AP-NY-10-06-99 1521EDT
>
> Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.