Species potentially
impacted by the proposed Desert Rock project—which would
be the third coal-fired power plant located within 16 miles
of each other—are the southwestern willow flycatcher, the
Colorado pike minnow, the razorback sucker, the silvery
minnow, the Mancos milk-vetch and the Mesa Verde cactus.
While the data isn’t publicly available
yet, Murphy said there are serious problems posed by high
levels of mercury and selenium both in the air and in the
San Juan River. Both elements are naturally occurring, but
in large concentrations pose a significant health hazard to
humans and the environment. According to the New Mexico
Environment Department, coal-fired power plants account for
more than 50 percent of the mercury found in New Mexico;
they are also a significant source of selenium.
“Selenium in the San Juan River is at the
point where reproduction and nervous system function in the
fish are impaired,” Murphy said.
While selenium is a by-product of power
plants, the high levels in the San Juan are in large part
due to agriculture. Water used for agriculture leaches the
selenium out of a geological formation called Mancos Shale.
The addition of more selenium from another power plant would
make this problem worse.
Mercury levels in the San Juan are also
much higher than are healthy for fish, Murphy explained.
While the two existing power plants in the four corner
region share much of the blame for the high levels of
mercury, we can also point the finger at China, he said.
“Mercury precipitates over water bodies,
that’s why we see mercury warnings in the Gulf of Mexico for
shrimp,” he said. “A lot of the mercury in the San Juan
River actually comes from China — most of their power is
from coal-powered plants.”
It’s rare for an endangered species
consultation to shut down a project, Murphy said. In most
cases, a “reasonable and prudent” alternative can be found.
But still, the study will show there are significant threats
already posed to the vulnerable wildlife and plant species
in the area.
“The San Juan River has some problems,”
Murphy said with understated candor.
The endangered species review was one of
the major reasons EPA gave for officially pulling the air
permit in September, but Desert Rock Energy Company
spokesman Frank Maisano told The Independent that the move
was “nothing more than politics at play.”
Maisano said EPA officials have told him
air permits are issued all the time without first having
official results in from ESA studies, and that the argument
otherwise is being made by “activists or people opposed to
the project.”
“The new administration isn’t interested
in moving forward with the project,” he said. “Desert Rock
isn’t alone, it’s other projects also.”
But Murphy said the EPA is supposed to
wait for information about endangered species before issuing
the permit.
“The EPA regulations require that they
consult with us prior to releasing the air quality permit,”
he said.
A project like the proposed Desert Rock
plant is subject to several federal studies, including a
comprehensive study under the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA), and a look at the impact on endangered species.
An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is prepared through
the NEPA process that assesses the project from multiple
angles.
The draft Environmental Impact Statement
for Desert Rock was completed in 2007. That report pointed
out that the plant would be a state of the art facility that
would emit pollutants — but at levels below what would
prohibit the project. The company has also agreed to fund
the installation of technology on the two older power plants
in the vicinity that would reduce the sulfur dioxide
emissions of the region by 110 percent of current levels.
Still, even small amounts of new
emissions in an area already overloaded with pollutants is
too much, activists and New Mexico officials have said. The
Desert Rock plant would be the third coal-fired plant within
an area that also has a large oil and gas industry, and
agricultural activity. It’s a rural area that has had
periodic ozone pollution problems equivalent to a densely
populated urban area.
“If you have two Hummers running in your
garage, and you add a hybrid — it may not add a Hummer’s
worth of emissions, but it still worsens an already pretty
bad situation,” Dailon Long, an organizer for Diné Care, a
Navajo environmental organization, told The Independent in
September.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr.
is at odds with those opposed to the plant, which include
some Navajo families who would be displaced by the project,
as well as environmental organizations and the state of New
Mexico.
In a statement reacting to the remand of
the air permit in September, Shirley said the project is the
most important economic development project in Navajo
history, and he insisted that it will eventually be
completed. The Endangered Species Act consultation and the
final Environmental Impact Statement will be completed soon,
he said. The company applied in August for a stimulus grant
to install experimental technology that would capture carbon
dioxide emitted by the plant and inject it into the ground.
Carbon dioxide is the primary industrial
emission pinpointed by scientists as the primary culprit
causing global warming, and coal-fired power plants are a
major source of it. The Desert Rock project would emit
approximately 12 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere
each year. The installation of carbon capture and
sequestration technology, however, would reduce that by
about 25 percent. And the company thinks that a selection of
the Desert Rock project by the federal government as a pilot
project would green-light Desert Rock once more.
“I would suspect that if the stimulus
money came through, it would be a strong reason for the
project to move forward,” Maisano said.
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